Wednesday, Oct. 17 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

Golden Age Party 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Party for the over 90 club and any who wish to attend. Swing Notes, a women’s acappela group will entertain and there will be refreshments. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov. 28. 

Conversation: Rosemary  

Radford Reuther and Carolyn  

Merchant 

5:30 - 8 p.m. 

#1 LeConte Building, UC Berkeley 

“Women, Religion, Science, and the Environment.” 649-2490 

Thursday, Oct. 18  

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Cecile Andrews, author of Circles of Simplicity, Return to the Good Life, speaks on “Rekindling Conversation.” 549-3509 www.seedsofsimplicity.org 

Berkeley Metaphysical  

Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month. 869-2547 

Friday, Oct. 19 

Cooperative Center Federal  

Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Honorary Chairperson is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the Mistress of Ceremonies. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop  

Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Saturday, Oct. 20 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that week be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Sunday, Oct. 21 

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Halloween Magic 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC Auditorium 

1414 Walnut St.  

Los Angeles Magician and Comedian “Hotei the Magic Guy.” For kids 2 through 12 and their parents. $7. 236-7469 www.thebuddyclub.com 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Fall House Tour 

1 - 5 p.m. 

St. Clement’s Episcopal Church 

Claremont Blvd. & Russell St.  

This year’s tour “Around the Claremont Hotel” features 10 houses in the historic neighborhood of residences and gardens that surround the landscaped park of the hotel. There will be a reception at one of the houses. $30. 845-8507 

– compiled by Guy Poole 

Proud to be a citizen of Berkeley 

Editor: 

I am troubled by local reaction to Dona Spring’s alleged statement comparing the actions of our federal government to those of a terrorist state. I find it troubling that the response from mainstream media might intimidate a public figure from speaking the truth as she sees it.  

I am troubled that other elected officials exploit the situation to embarrass a colleague. I am troubled that our mayor is embarrassed by the words of our elected leaders who speak from the conviction of their moral conscience. 

What makes Berkeley a beacon throughout this country is its historical willingness to challenge mainstream posturing that perpetuates national arrogance and self-righteousness.  

If leaders and citizens of Berkeley fail to hold up the mirror of accountability, where else in the United States will people ask the hard questions? 

Our mayor continues to remind us that this is not the 60’s. I agree; we have lost the innocence of the 60’s. But hopefully we have gained wisdom to recognize a familiar path our country has tread too many times in the past four decades. Whether Dona Spring said it or not, many of us who examine the evidence recognize this country’s acts of terrorism against innocent civilians in the Middle East and in other third world countries. 

I am troubled by a reported statement that suggests the mayor of Berkeley is embarrassed by our most valuable characteristics – our moral conscience and our willingness to stand up for it. That Barbara Lee and Dona Spring draw attention to our city because they speak from moral conscience brings pride to our city.  

At times throughout my adult life I have traveled outside the United States – in Europe, during two Republican administrations’ bombing of Libya and Iraq, and again while a Democratic administration bombed Kosovo. At those times I was ashamed to admit I was from the United States; I have never been ashamed to say I am from Berkeley. 

Pamela Webster 

Berkeley 

Blame bin Laden for death of civilians 

The Daily Planet received the following letter addressed to Councilmember Dona Spring: 

While you have a right to your opinion, I do not believe you have a right to inflict your opinion on the city and citizens of Berkeley as an elected representative. Have you consulted with the people of Berkeley as to their opinions on the U.S. war on terrorism? 

There comes a time when talk and coalitions cease to be effective. The terrorist acts upon the United States were unmerciful, violent attempts to destroy our country by destroying our freedoms. No terrorist involved cared about the lives they ended and the many more lives that they have tragically affected forever. No, the majority of the citizens of Afghanistan are not responsible for Sept. 11 or what terror may come to the United States. And no, they should not have to die because of what some of their countryman did.  

But it is not the United States killing Afghan civilians. It is Osma bin Laden and his organization who are killing them. (Why would we be bombing Afghanistan if it weren’t for bin Laden?) I think they want to get rid of bin Laden almost as much as we do. You have to understand – bin Laden et.al. do not comprehend diplomacy. They do not want to solve anything peacefully. The man is using his religion as a front for his evil. He is not capable of compromise or working toward a common goal unless that goal is to tear down the United States. At the same time he denounces our “system,” he uses that same system for profit to fund his campaign against us. By the way, do you really think he or members of his organization would ever keep their diplomatic word? Come now. 

What you are asking the city manager and ultimately the people of Berkeley to do is to join bin Laden’s side–work to divide our country instead of being the kind of patriots our Founding Fathers were and support our president. Does “Give me Liberty or give me death” ring a (Liberty) bell? I think you should reevaluate what you are in office to do, how you were even afforded the opportunity to hold office via our government structure and uphold the Constitution of the United States instead of work to tear it down. 

Becky Kaiser 

Bakersfield  

Follow the money 

Editor: 

While all the news reporters watch and report on every bright flash of light, every loud explosion, why aren’t they covering, with equal ferocity, the war on terrorist finances?  

Like any organization, the far-flung network of terrorists needs money to function. Who is reporting and watching whether our government is going after their stock accounts, banks, and trading companies with an equal ferocity that we launch jets with big bombs? 

The terrorists hit the World Trade Center because it is a symbol of the global economy. So, let’s give them what they want, let’s unplug them from their money. 

Responsible journalism should keep watch that Bush’s war on terrorism is being fought where the action is, and not just focus on watching rubble bounce. Afghanistan is a side show, how about reporting on the Main Event? 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

International law should rule 

Editor: 

We killed the messenger of bad news and learned very little from his message; certainly not enough to prevent what happened on Sept. 11, 2000.  

He was a U.S. combat-veteran awarded for bravery in action, who bombed a federal government building in Oklahoma City in protest against his government’s action in Waco, Texas, when it killed 80 men, women and children in the Davidian community that was not threatening our national security in any way requiring their obliteration. 

We should have learned then that we needed to mend our ways and stop trying to dominate the world with our super military might. 

I believe the sponsors of the multiple murders and massive destructive actions in New York, Washington, D.C. (actually Arlington, Virginia) and Pennsylvania, must be identified and arrested by United Nations action since all of its members have declared themselves opposed to barbarism and terrorism, and we should add: militarism (namely war-waging and preparations for the same, to which the 1945 U.N. Charter refers as a “scourge” from which “succeeding generations should be saved”): I repeat: action that consists in and amounts to effective global police action, as noted above. 

Timothy McVeigh took the law into his own hands and made a terrible mistake for which he paid with his own life. No person nor gang of persons, nor a single nation or gang of nations, should make that mistake and risk the lives of the world’s people and their ways of life in so doing.  

The 9/11 killers self-destructed. Arresting the sponsors requires super global police action by the United Nations. 

Alfred C. Williams 

Member, World Community Advocates, 

Unitarian Universalist Center,  

San Francisco 

The collective heartbeat, tears and history of America were never better exemplified until Monday night at Zellerbach, when a near-capacity crowd listened, laughed and paused silently in communal empathy with the words and reminiscences of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel. 

“I'm getting as deaf as a post just like Rush Limbaugh and it couldn't happen to two nicer guys,” said Terkel. 

“And that's the only thing they have in common,” added host Orville Schell, dean of UC Berkeley School of Journalism. 

Spending an evening with Terkel is a tour of contemporary American history through the stories of the people who lived it. He has written over a dozen books ranging from “The Giants of Jazz” (1957) to his Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Good War” (1985) and “Working” (1974), each one exploring a different theme. 

“We as a country have a national Alzheimer's disease,” said Terkel. “The only hope is if we have a memory of the past through the eyes of ordinary people.” 

With 89 years of ageless wit and wisdom, he records the oral history of the famous and the not so famous. In his latest book, “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth and Hunger for a Faith” (New Press), he listens to the stories of death and the life surrounding it as told by doctors, veterans, singers, AIDS victims and the people he calls “ordinary heroes.” 

Exploring how Americans live with death was an idea suggested to him by Gore Vidal more than 25 years ago over martinis. At the time, Terkel admitted, all he could see was the olive or lemon peel in the martini, not the subject for a book.  

He felt differently after his wife of 60 years died in 1989. 

Reflecting on his new book he said: “This is therapy for me; palliative beyond description. 

“The irony is that ‘Death’ is the liveliest book I've written.”  

Terkel entertained and moved the Zellerbach audience with stories from the book.  

He responded to questions by Schell and co-panelist Peter Coyote, an author and actor, with a series of stories from his other works and his colorful life. 

Terkel is a graduate of the University of Chicago with degrees in philosophy and law. His varied career includes a 45-year stint at WFMT-FM in Chicago as a music show host. This gig led to interviewing artists and gathering material for his first book. He also played gangsters on Chicago soaps. In 1950, he started a television show at NBC called “Stud's Place,” but was eventually let go because of his political views. 

“I never saw a petition I didn't like,” he said, recalling the Senator McCarthy era. “All I had to say was that I was stupid, that I had been duped into signing the anti-Jim Crow petitions, but my ego and vanity were at stake.” 

With America at war again in 2001, he was asked to compare his generation, which experienced the depression and World War II, with following generations. Calling the 1960s a great generation because they looked outside themselves to the civil rights and peace movements, he then asked what have “we” learned. 

“We are hungry for something, a kind of immortality. If we reach someone and he in turn reaches someone else, that gives us solace,” he said. 

Sharing his thoughts about his next book, “Hope,” he gave the audience the promise of another guidebook to help us remember our past. 

"I may not finish it," he smiled, "but it makes the journey go faster."

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m, matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Through Oct. 19: Documentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Loaded Visions” Oct. 17: 8 p.m. Experimental short films by Antero Alli (Eight Videopoems and “Lilly in Limbo,” plus live music from Sylvi Alli). $5 - $10 sliding scale. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 464-4640 www.verticalpool.com 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 15: 7 p.m., Genesis; Oct. 16: 7:30 p.m., La Région centrale; Oct. 17: 7:30 p.m., Video in the Villages and Amazonian Trilogy; Oct. 19: 7:30 p.m., Jungle Secrets, Yãkwa; Oct. 20: 3:30 p.m., Berkeley High/Bay Area Film Festival; 7 p.m., The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; 9:20 p.m., The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse; Oct. 21: 3:30 p.m., Kiss and Film, 5:30 p.m., Harakiri; Oct. 22: 7 p.m., The Closed Doors; Oct. 23: 7:30 p.m., Super-8mm Films by Theresa Cha; Oct. 24: 7:30 p.m., The Rainy Season and Wai’a Rini; Oct. 26: 7:30 p.m., The Passion of Joan of Arc, 9:15 p.m., Vivre sa Vie; Oct 27: 7 p.m., New Music for Silent Films by UCB Composers; Oct. 28: 5:30 p.m., Vampyr; Oct. 29: 7 p.m., A Time for Drunken Horses; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., An Evening with Leslie Thornton; Oct. 31: 7:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., Saudade do Futuro. 

2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Exhibits 

“First Annual Art Show” UC Berkeley Life Drawing Group Reception, Oct. 20: 3 p.m.; Oct. 21- 26: 7 - 10 p.m. Figure studies from the workshops at UC Berkeley. 1014 60th St., Emeryville. 923-0689 

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.com 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Oct. 19 - Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“Musee des Hommages” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Apparatus Operator Darren Bobrosky, of Berkeley’s Fire Station 5, recently returned from a 10-day stint as a rescue worker in Lower Manhattan. Bobrosky and his partner, Dylan, a highly-trained search and rescue dog, are affiliated with Oakland’s Urban Search and Rescue team, one of the 28 FEMA-affiliated USAR teams nationwide. Following is Bobrosky’s story, edited by Daily Planet reporter Hank Sims.  

This is the first of a two part series. Look for the second part in Thursday’s edition. 

I was here at the firehouse when we got the word. We all got up at 8 o’clock that morning, the 11th, and we were watching what was going on. They paged me at about 8:30 and said, “You’re on standby. Do you have your stuff together?” 

I got a number of other calls that day, asking about my status. The state Office of Emergency Services called me, a fire chief from Sacramento called, the USAR team manager from Oakland called – they were just checking and double-checking the members to see if they were available and ready to go.  

I normally keep a 10-day supply of food for Dylan and supplies for myself in my truck at all times anyway, so we’re always ready. We are supposed to have a two-hour response time to get to our rendezvous point in Oakland, so that’s no problem. 

But then we got put on standby, and then we were told to stand down. Then again – standby, stand down, all throughout the two weeks we were ready to go. It was terrible. I had a few chances to go with the Sacramento team, but I was fifth on their roster. One guy couldn’t go, and they couldn’t get ahold of another one, but then it didn’t happen. 

I knew I would get to go with Oakland – that’s the team I’m assigned to – but since there aren’t enough dogs to go around, they send whatever dogs they need with whatever teams go out. So we can cross over to other teams, whereas other members – the engineers, or the logistics people – don’t. 

I was concerned that if they wait and don’t send us until late in the game, we wouldn’t go at all. Generally, the dogs are not required to be certified as cadaver search dogs. I do train Dylan with cadavers whenever possible, just so I know his reaction, but they are primarily live-find dogs. 

It was hard to get solid information, even at the task-force leader level. I’ve got things going on in my life – I was trying to maneuver things around, get things squared away. My wife’s birthday was October 8th, so I was hoping to be back by then. 

They finally activated us on the 26th. We met at Oakland two o’clock the next afternoon. They bussed us out to Travis Air Force Base at 5:30, and we waited at Travis until midnight. Then they flew us to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. 

We took another bus into New York, and got our accommodations set up. They put us up in the Javits Convention Center. Usually they try to give you that first day off as a rest period, so you can get your bearings. They took us out to the pile the next morning. 

It was bigger than I thought it would be. I’d seen it on TV a few times. When you initially saw it on TV, you saw everything from a distance, from ground level. It looked pretty amazing, but you couldn’t get a feel for it. Then they took it to another level when they let the helicopters fly over. From the top, you could see that it was huge. 

But you don’t get the true sense of it until you get right up to it, or right in it, and you see people 200 or 300 feet from you that look like ants compared to the structure they’re looking at.  

When you tour some of the buildings around the perimeter, you see how much destruction and debris hit the building that surrounded the towers.  

The concrete was turned into powder. That was another problem we had with searching and digging through the rubble. We train in rubble all the time, pieces the size of a picnic table down to pieces the size of bricks. This pile looked like steel with dirt thrown on top of it. All that concrete just became dust.  

There were areas you could see around the fringes that looked like the rubble we’re used to seeing – broken-up concrete like a recycling plant would have, or a small, recently-demolished building. This one, though, it came down with such force that it pulverized concrete and twisted those big I-beams in half.  

They split our team in half. The next day, the New York City fire department asked us to cover for their Collapsed Structure Response Unit, up in Queens. They had lost all the guys from that unit in the rubble. Since we were collapsed structure specialists, basically, they had us cover. The other half of our team went to the pile. 

USAR teams are designed to split in half. One half takes the first 12-hour shift, the other half the second. Once we got there, we found out that we weren’t going to be working 24 hours a day. So we switched to day shifts only, and half of us went to Queens first. 

We were in Queens for two and a half days. It was away from all the action, but it was nice – very relaxed and peaceful. You could get sleep up there, which you couldn’t do in the Convention Center. The dogs had a park to play in. 

But knowing that we had things to do back in Manhattan, we were tense about being up there. We didn’t want to be there, we wanted to be back working on the pile.  

Knowing that we were doing a service for the fire department in New York made us feel better. They asked us to help, and cover that area for them. We were doing something, even if it wasn’t what we were planning to do originally. Their Collapsed Structure Response Unit deals with 150 collapsed buildings a year, but we never got called. 

We were staying in the officers’ quarters at an Army base. We had one New York fireman with us, who was going to be our liaison if we ever got a call. We didn’t know the city, so were going to have to follow him. We had three trucks full of gear that we would bring, so we would go in a convoy if we got any type of call. 

He was the only fireman we talked to up there. But as we got more involved with the pile, at Ground Zero, we started to talking to more guys. They were happy to see us there. They knew what we could do, and that we weren’t there to take over from them or anything. They were in charge of the rubble, and they wanted to get their people out. That was their deal.

Berkeley High School’s now ex-principal, Frank Lynch, wasted no time in hitting the road. In an e-mail sent Monday to Parent Teacher Student Association President Joan Edelstein, Lynch wrote: “Wednesday is my official last day.”  

On Tuesday, some officials had assumed he would be around until Nov. 1. Now the question looms of who will run the high school beginning Thursday. 

“I didn’t get the impression that the transition to a new administrative model at Berkeley High was going to take place as early as tomorrow,” said Terry Doran, the school board president.  

The board and Superintendent Michele Lawrence will discuss the matter at Wednesday’s school board meeting, Doran added.  

Lynch accepted the superintendent post in the Del Norte County Unified School District late last week.  

Lawrence sent an e-mail to the Berkeley High community Monday to announce his departure and reassure parents. It said Lynch would leave “by Nov. 1.” 

“Parents are very upset,” Edelstein said. “They finally after a year got used to having a new principal. There was a lot of questioning when he came whether he was really committed to Berkeley, because he wasn’t moving into Berkeley.” 

Lynch lives in Petaluma. 

“The professional thing to do would be not to depart until a replacement was identified,” said Bob Epstein, parent of a Berkeley High sophomore and senior, “otherwise he would leave the school at a needless risk.” 

“A lot of parents have said to me in e-mails that there has been so much stress and anxiety since the Sept. 11 events, that to add to the disruption only causes even worse anxiety,” Edelstein said. “What they really want is some normalcy and continuity in their kids’ lives, and they need reassurance that this is going to be happening.” 

Edelstein also said some parents she had spoken to wondered why the district had kept Lynch’s possible departure under wraps. 

“He was really working on establishing a relationship, and parents were finally starting to feel comfortable,” she said. “It came as a big shock, and it seemed that it had been kept as a secret rather than helping to prepare the parents for a potential transition.” 

Doran said keeping Lynch’s job search quiet was not unusual. He pointed to former superintendent Jack McLaughlin, who was asked to apply for “many jobs.”  

“If every time he was asked to apply for a job, we made that a public announcement, it really would have hurt his ability to be an effective superintendent while he was here,” Doran said. “It didn’t serve any purpose whatsoever.” 

In her Monday e-mail, Lawrence stated a desire to move on. 

“While we could debate the merits of his leaving just now, and the District’s legal right to retain him, I see only harm in that discussion,” Lawrence wrote.  

Outlining the steps she saw the administration taking in response to Lynch’s departure, Lawrence wrote of the need to “examine the entire staffing allocation and current administrative assignments” and possibly add more personnel in spite of budget constraints. She pointed to time-consuming disciplinary burdens as one impediment to retaining teachers and administrators. 

Acknowledging the need for more consistency and stability, the superintendent called for better decision-making procedures and asked for parents’ patience. 

“I remain steadfast in my commitment to make the school and District one of the best in the nation... It’s just going to take some time,” she wrote. 

Lawrence’s e-mail also announced that officials of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges might allow the district some wiggle room in its ongoing struggle to meet accreditation deadlines. 

Last spring, WASC gave Berkeley High until next fall to upgrade its performance and accountability or lose its standing. 

“I’ve had a long term relationship with WASC so I believe they were willing to entertain alternative solutions to our current dilemma,” she wrote. “We reached agreement on some compromise. While the accreditation will not be canceled or postponed it can be modified and packaged in a way to help us meet a more realistic time line.” 

The recent increase in hostility, posturing and backbiting between the two City Council factions could be the first stirrings of a mayoral election that is still more than a year away. 

Some council watchers say the sharp rhetoric, which has characterized recent council debates between progressives and moderates over redistricting and an anti-U. S. bombing resolution is a sign that incumbents are wrangling for advantage over potential challengers in the November 2002 elections. 

Moderate Mayor Shirley Dean said last week she would run for a third term. Progressive Councilmember Linda Maio may be another likely candidate, although she has not publicly stated she will challenge Dean. 

So far Dean, who will be 67 next month, is the only elected official on the council who has announced a re-election campaign, although she isn’t saying much else other than she is confident she will win.  

“Yes I am running, but I haven’t made any campaign plans yet and haven’t given any thought to what the issues will be.” she said. “I’m totally confident but I’m going to run hard because that’s the way I am.” 

Dean’s unofficial announcement ends any speculation that she was planning a bid for Dion Aroner’s State Assembly seat. Aroner will be ousted by term limits in November 2002. 

Maio, 58, will not admit she’s a candidate for mayor, but one can hear the echoes of political barnstorming when she talks about the coming election. 

“The city needs new leadership,” Maio said. “The city needs to be worked on, not superficial work, I mean really worked on.” 

One reason for Maio’s reluctance to announce her bid for mayor might be that she will have to give up her seat on the City Council. According to the city clerk, incumbents cannot run for two seats at the same time. Maio’s seat as representative of District 1 will also be on the ballot next year. 

Other councilmembers up for re-election are progressive councilmembers Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington in districts 4 and 7 and moderate Councilmember Polly Armstrong in District 8. Currently, the council’s five progressives hold a slim majority on the nine-member council.  

Another issue for potential mayoral candidates to consider is money. Mayoral elections in Berkeley are expensive. According to city campaign records, Dean spent nearly $200,000 on her campaign in 1998. That’s no small amount when the Berkeley Election Reform Act limits political contributions to $250 per person.  

Dean, who has traditionally enjoyed the support of property owners, developers and business interests, said she is not worried about raising money for the campaign.  

“I’ve never had a problem raising money,” she said. 

On the other hand, Maio said progressives have a tougher time filling their campaign coffers. But she said progressive supporters make up for money shortages with devotion and enthusiasm. 

“Progressives are the ones who will roll up their sleeves and go door to door, block to block in a walking–talking campaign,” she said.  

Maio said a potential campaign issue might be development, especially in the western part of town, which has seen thousands of square-feet of small manufacturing and artisan space converted to offices. 

“Artists, musicians and crafts people are the life’s blood of Berkeley,” Maio said. “We received a wake-up call from San Francisco where they lost so many artists and nonprofits because development overran them. We have to see how we can keep these people in Berkeley.” 

Dean said a staff report describes claims of offices taking over west Berkeley exaggerated. She added that it would be hard to run against her record as a supporter of the arts. Dean pointed to her work in establishing the Downtown Arts District and the West Berkeley Artisan District. 

“If Councilmember Maio makes a bid for mayor, then I’m sure we’ll discuss all of these issues and discuss them at length,” Dean said.

In a resolution that was, perhaps, the first like it in the nation, the Berkeley City Council passed a resolution Tuesday, mourning the loss of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, condemning the attackers and calling on elected representatives to minimize the risk to American military personnel while avoiding actions that could endanger the lives of innocent people in Afghanistan. 

A divided council debated the issue before a packed council chambers, with most of the audience in support of the resolution and some 20 apparently opposed. 

Councilmember Polly Armstrong tried to counter the motion, authored by Councilmember Dona Spring, and put forward a resolution to support the president and honor his bringing together a coalition of 60 countries to fight terrorism. This resolution was defeated. 

Comments from the public mostly reflected support for the main council motion. Ann Fagen Ginger from the Meiklejohn Institute made a point that the fight against terrorists should be confined to international law. Barbara Lubin from the Middle East Children’s Alliance called on the council to support a cessation of the bombing.  

“I have seen the result of American bombing on starving Iraqi children,” she said. 

Eric Skidmore was one of those supporting the attacks on Afghanistan. He is part of United Students for America, a group formed on the UC Berkeley campus soon after Sept. 11 to provide a counter voice to the anti-war sentiment on campus.  

“To approve this recommendation will not only make Berkeley a laughing stock, but will misrepresent most Berkeley citizens,” he said. “There are many people (in Berkeley) who support America.”  

While Councilmember Betty Olds, a member of the moderate council faction, talked about the difficulty of responding to the terrorists “who do not value human lives.”  

Councilmember Polly Armstrong, also a moderate, said those supporting the resolution cause the city to appear out of step.  

“Instead of a thoughtful city, we come across as a bunch of nuts,” she said, condemning the progressives. 

Speaking in favor of the resolution, Councilmember Kriss Worthington pointed to the “damage and destruction (the United States) has caused in Afghanistan” and said he would not give in to the pressure to “sit down and shut up” on the question. 

“The loss of lives is horrifying,” said Councilmember Linda Maio, arguing that terrorism can be overcome by changing policies that cause others in the world to hate the United States. “We can overcome terror by making it irrelevant,” she said. 

The main motion, which was approved, was broken up into various parts: 

• Dean and the five progressives – councilmembers Worthington, Spring, Margaret Breland, and Linda Maio and Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek voted in favor of expressing grief at the atrocities and honoring “the valiant firefighter and police...and our military personnel now engaged in Afghanistan.” 

• Dean also supported the progressives in calling for a national campaign to lessen dependence on oil from the Middle East and to commit to using renewable energy sources. 

• The council split 5-4 – progressives voting in favor and moderates abstaining – on calling for an quick conclusion to the bombing and avoiding actions that could endanger civilian lives in Afghanistan and U.S. military lives; on calling for an international body to bring the terrorists to justice; and on “addressing and overcoming those conditions such as poverty, malnutrition, disease, oppression and subjugation that tend to drive desperate people to acts of terrorism.”

Fresh on the heels of Berkeley High principal Frank Lynch’s abrupt departure, another key figure in the district administration announced Monday he would resign. 

Gene Le Fevre, the district’s maintenance director, will leave his post at the end of October, Superintendent Michele Lawrence said Tuesday.  

Le Fevre has worked in Berkeley for over two years, working on an interim basis for his first several months. He took over from Harvey Delorum, who left the district after only eight months to direct maintenance at Sonoma State University. Le Fevre could not be reached for comment Tuesday. 

The resignation comes just as Lawrence has created a new structure for the maintenance department. The school board is slated to vote on the plan at its meeting Wednesday evening.

OAKLAND — The small union that represents BART train controllers and supervisors rejected an offer from BART management Monday, which could trigger a strike early next week that would strand more than 300,000 commuters. 

The one-week delay is meant to give BART and the union time to reconvene the so-called Labor Day Committee, a seven-member team of Bay Area elected officials who helped broker a deal with the transit agency’s two largest unions in September. 

The 238-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993 voted 130-43 to reject the contract offer that’s largely similar to those won in September by the 2,500-member Service Employees International and Amalgamated Transit Unions. 

Those contracts call for a 22 percent wage increases over the next four years, continued health care coverage at no added cost to employees and increased pension plan contributions. 

“Please, let’s get back to the table and settle our issues,” said Norma del Mercado, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993. “Let’s avoid a strike. Nobody wants a strike.” 

While union leaders supported continuing negotiations, BART managers said their offer is final. 

BART General Manager Tom Margro said the system would be willing to meet with AFSCME negotiators, but would not improve its offer. 

“Our position is we have a best and final offer out there,” he said. 

BART spokesman Mike Healy said trains would run even if Local 3993 rejects the contract next week, though with possibly disruptions or delays. 

Leaders at Service Employees International Union and Amalgamated Transit Union say their members will not cross the picket line. Privately, however, they say fears of a recession could make it hard for many workers to give up their paychecks.

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco International Airport officials announced Tuesday that a parking lot that has been used for years as a public viewing area will be closed. 

The lot, which also serves as a staging area for buses, limos and door-to-door vans waiting to be called to a terminal, will be closed for an indefinite period starting Wednesday morning because of security concerns. 

The lot, which is located close to a departure runway at the southern end of the airport, has been a popular spot for plane-watchers for years. 

“A lot of people plan to have their lunches there,” said airport spokesman Ron Wilson. “They will be disappointed. We just don’t want to take any chances.” 

The commercial vehicles will be moved to a lot at the northern end of the airport, but no new public viewing area will be established at the airport. 

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SAN JOSE — Out of money and unable to pay its musicians, the San Jose Symphony board voted Monday to temporarily shut down its business operations, but still hasn’t decided what to do about the rest of its concert season. 

Most of the office staff will be let go, said Dick Gourley, the symphony’s acting chief executive officer. The board will discuss at a meeting Thursday whether to cancel upcoming performances, including concerts scheduled for Oct. 26 to 28 in San Jose and Cupertino, and a November fundraiser.  

It isn’t clear yet what will happen to tickets for more than 40 future performances scheduled through June. 

The symphony had a $7.8 million budget last year and ended the fiscal year in July with a deficit of $2.5 million. It has been operating with almost no cash reserves since the summer. 

Curtis Dudnick, the acting chief financial officer, told the board in August that if it couldn’t raise at least $2.7 million by year’s end, the orchestra would be facing bankruptcy. The $1 million raised has been used to pay operating expenses. Last month, musicians were paid only after trustees wrote personal checks after a board meeting. 

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MARTINEZ, Calif. (AP) — Contra Costa County health officials want to know why it took the Equilon refinery more than a half-hour Sunday night to activate warning sirens after the start of a smoky release that showered soot for miles. 

Meanwhile, Equilon has begun a huge cleanup, paying to sweep city streets and school playgrounds and offering to pay the cleaning bills for cars, houses or other private property dirtied by the black dust. 

County health officials said the fluffy particles are not hazardous to touch and they have no reports of anyone being injured by breathing the particles. 

Equilon equipment released alumina silica for about 65 minutes Sunday, the company reported to the county. The cause of the accident is under investigation. 

In deciding initially that the release was not serious enough to warrant sirens, Equilon also postponed activating the county’s automated phone system to dial prerecorded warnings to refinery neighbors. 

BERKELEY — University of California faculty members are considering recommending that the nine-campus system stop judging applicants on the basis of grades alone. 

The proposal, which will be discussed Wednesday at the UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco, follows the board’s decision in May to rescind a 1995 vote dropping UC’s old affirmative action program. 

The repeal was largely symbolic, since a state law passed in 1996 bans considering race or gender in public education. However, the vote did call into question a requirement in the 1995 measure that at least 50 percent of students at each campus — up from the previous minimum of 40 percent — be chosen solely on the basis of academic criteria. 

Remaining students are selected on the basis of grades and supplemental factors such as talent, leadership and ability to overcome disadvantage. 

The issue comes back to regents Wednesday by way of a report from a faculty committee suggesting that it may be better to take the larger view of all applicants, a system known as “comprehensive review.” 

“The important thing is it is not just one or two academic criteria like high school GPA or the standardized test scores that determine the potential for success. There are other criteria also that one should take into account,” said Chand Viswanathan, the faculty representative to the regents. 

The proposal has not yet been voted on by UC’s Academic Senate. If approved, it would go back to the regents for a vote, possibly as early as the November meeting. 

The May repeal ordered that any changes take effect for students entering in fall 2002. 

The move toward comprehensive review is the latest in a series of changes in UC admissions policies. 

In 1999, regents guaranteed eligibility to students who finished in the top 4 percent of their high school, based on UC-required courses.  

This year, they approved expanding that guarantee to the top 12.5 percent, provided students who fell in the latter 8.5 percent went to community college for the first two years, although that proposal stalled last month for lack of state funds. 

UC President Richard C. Atkinson also has asked faculty members to consider dropping the SAT 1 as a requirement.

CAMDEN, N.J. — The mistress of a rabbi charged with killing his wife testified Tuesday that he once told her about a dream in which “violence was coming” to his spouse and that she ultimately feared for her life. 

Rabbi Fred Neulander, 60, is accused of arranging the bludgeoning death of his wife Carol in 1994 so he could pursue the affair with Elaine Soncini, a former Philadelphia radio personality. He is charged with murder and conspiracy. 

Elaine Soncini said she met Neulander the day her husband, Ken Garland, died in December 1992. After the funeral, she testified, the rabbi asked if they could meet for lunch. 

They were having “relations” within two weeks, she said — either at her house during lunch or in his office at Congregation M’kor Shalom, the temple he founded with his wife in wealthy Cherry Hill, southeast of Philadelphia. 

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Zucker acknowledged to jurors that the rabbi had an affair, but said his client is not on trial for adultery. Soncini said the relationship was immoral and she accepted responsibility for it. 

Soncini, who didn’t look at Neulander as she testified, said the two exchanged expensive gifts and spoke as many as 10 times a day. She said she told Neulander at one point in 1994 about bad dreams she’d been having and he told her about some bad dreams of his own. 

“He dreamed that violence was coming to Carol,” she said. 

Carol Neulander was beaten to death with a metal pipe in her living room as her husband was at synagogue. A few months later, Neulander resigned as senior rabbi, citing unspecified moral indiscretions. 

Prosecutors later identified Neulander as a suspect and Soncini acknowledged the affair, saying she ended it after learning he was suspected of arranging his wife’s death. 

Since then, former private investigator Leonard Jenoff and another man have confessed to the slaying. Both men pleaded guilty to manslaughter and have agreed to testify against Neulander. 

Soncini said she considered it a sign when Neulander came into her life just as her husband was dying and ended up converting to Judaism. 

But she said she decided she needed to make changes in her life and told the rabbi their relationship would end by the end of 1994. She said the rabbi insisted they would be together by her birthday in mid-December. 

Soncini also said Neulander called her to his office less than two weeks after his wife’s Nov. 1 slaying and told her he would marry her “as soon as appropriately possible.” 

She said he told her: “Trust me, when God closes a door, He opens a window.” 

She said when she was questioned by investigators Dec. 5, she began to fear for her own safety. 

“I was afraid Fred Neulander might kill me, as a matter of fact,” she said, “because I didn’t know what had transpired” the night Carol Neulander was killed. 

LOS ANGELES — Afghanistan may have been the breeding ground for last month’s terrorist attacks, but Hollywood served as a source of inspiration, says director Robert Altman. 

“The movies set the pattern, and these people have copied the movies,” Altman said Tuesday by phone from London, where he’s finishing his film “Gosford Park.” “Nobody would have thought to commit an atrocity like that unless they’d seen it in a movie.” 

So violent action movies with huge explosions amount to training films for such bold attacks, as studios spend a lot of time and money trying to appeal to young males, the 76-year-old filmmaker said 

“How dare we continue to show this kind of mass destruction in movies,” said Altman, whose directing credits include “M-A-S-H,” “Nashville” and “Dr. T & the Women.” “I just believe we created this atmosphere and taught them how to do it.” 

Altman hopes audiences will lean more toward thoughtful, character-driven films after witnessing the horror of the attacks on television. 

His “Gosford Park” — a combination class-war satire and Agatha Christie-like murder mystery set at a British manor in 1932 — features Helen Mirren, Emily Watson, Clive Owen, Kristin Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith. 

“Maybe there’s a chance to get back to ... grown-up films,” Altman said. “Anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people.”

NEW YORK — Knight Ridder’s net income plunged 27 percent in the third quarter as the Sept. 11 attacks led to a steep drop-off in newspaper advertising and higher costs associated with increasing news coverage. 

Knight Ridder, the nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher after Gannett Co., on Tuesday reported net income of $55.7 million for the three-month period ending Sept. 30, compared to $76.1 million in the same period a year ago. 

Revenues slumped 10 percent to $693.1 million from $769.2 million. 

Per-share profits were 65 cents, in line with guidance the company issued a month ago and 2 cents above the estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. Year-ago earnings were 87 cents. 

Knight Ridder’s chairman and chief executive Tony Ridder said in a statement that the Sept. 11 attacks cost the company a total of $10 million, including $9 million in lost advertising revenue, after accounting for temporary increases from condolence ads, and additional costs of $2 million for extra editions and creating more space for news. Offsetting those costs were added circulation revenues of $1 million. 

Other newspaper publishers and media companies have also been affected by the slumping advertising market, which was made far worse by the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.  

But so far Knight Ridder has offered the most specific details on the direct financial impact of the attacks on its bottom line. 

Ridder said the attacks reversed a slight comeback in retail advertising.  

That combined with an already soft market for general advertising and help wanted ads turned September into a “memorably bad month,” he said in a statement. 

In a separate report also issued Tuesday,  

Knight Ridder reported that total advertising revenues at its newspapers fell 16 percent in September compared to the same month a year ago. Year-to-date advertising revenues were off 7 percent. 

Ridder said that while the company’s prospects had started to look up in the weeks after the attacks, they fell back again once the U.S. bombing campaign began in Afghanistan. But he noted that cost savings from a downsizing effort announced in April were paying off, and he also said newsprint costs were heading lower. 

He did not specifically lower the outlook for the company’s full-year earnings, which currently stand at $2.91 per share, as measured by Thomson Financial/First Call, but he noted that there still exists a “harsh revenue environment” and that achieving full-year earnings goals would be contingent upon “resumption of more normal business patterns.” 

Investors seemed to take the news favorably, sending Knight Ridder’s shares up 60 cents to close at $57.72 in trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Investors seemed to take the news favorably, sending Knight Ridder’s shares up 90 cents to $58.02 in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Knight Ridder, which is based in San Jose, Calif., publishes 28 newspapers in major markets across the country, including the San Jose Mercury News, The Miami Herald and The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

For the first nine months of the year, net income fell 67 percent to $109.8 million compared to $333.2 million in the same period a year ago, while per-share figures fell to $1.28 from $3.71. Revenues were off 7 percent to $2.17 billion from $2.33 billion. 

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On the Net 

Knight Ridder’s company Web site: www.kri.com. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Wells Fargo & Co. reported Tuesday that its third-quarter profit surged by 42 percent, as the West’s biggest bank cashed in on a home-loan boom fueled by falling interest rates. 

The San Francisco-based company earned $1.16 billion, or 67 cents per share — up from $821 million, or 47 cents per share, at the same time last year. 

If not for the bank’s acquisition of Utah-based First Security Corp., Wells said its earnings per share would have improved by 5 percent. 

The results lagged the consensus earnings estimate of 69 cents per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call. The shortfall clipped Wells’ stock, which fell 58 cents to close at $40.19 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Wells’ mortgage division propelled the bank’s third-quarter performance. 

From July through September, Wells funded $48 billion in mortgages. That raised its home lending volume through the first nine months of the year to $122 billion — more than it has recorded in any other previous full year. The bank, the nation’s biggest headquartered west of the Mississippi, financed $109 billion in mortgages in 1998. 

The bank ended the quarter with another $38 billion in mortgages in its processing pipeline and $476 billion in its mortgage servicing portfolio, which is a source of reliable fee income. 

Wells is benefiting from the economic weakness that has pushed mortgage rates well below 7 percent, prompting millions of homeowners to refinance existing loans and making it easier for prospective home buyers to qualify for new loans. 

“With mortgage rates at historically low levels, we are seeing unprecedented levels of applications,” said Mark Oman, Wells’ executive vice president of mortgage and home equity. 

The mortgage flurry helped lift Wells’ community banking division to a third-quarter profit of $931 million, a 51 percent improvement from the same time last year. 

The refinancing craze also means that some of Wells’ outstanding mortgages will be paid off earlier than expected. The bank increased its reserves slightly more than expected in the quarter to offset revenue losses from the anticipated payoff of mortgages, said industry analyst Joseph Morford of Dain Rauscher Wessels. 

Like other banks, the frail economy hurts Wells, as businesses and consumers begin to default on loans. The bank’s non-performing assets increased 9.5 percent, or $155 million, during the third quarter to $1.79 billion as of Sept. 30. The bank’s problem loans totaled $1.62 billion at the end of the third quarter, a 67 percent increase from last year. 

The trends are “consistent with our view that there is continuing weakness in the overall economy,” said Ely Licht, Wells’ chief credit officer. 

The credit problems are slightly worse than analysts expected, but remain in a manageable range, Morford said. 

The bank said it is still assessing its exposure to businesses hardest hit by the economic ripple effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

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On The Net: 

http://www.wellsfargo.com 

REDWOOD CITY — Internet service provider ExciteAtHome and Comcast Corp.’s cable TV division have worked out a way to resume signing up new cable modem customers while ExciteAtHome deals with its bankruptcy reorganization. 

Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer would not describe the terms of the arrangement, but said it provided a way for ExciteAtHome to resume installing cable modems for Comcast customers. 

ExciteAtHome stopped provisioning new accounts for its cable partners last week. Moyer said Philadelphia-based Comcast, the nation’s third-largest cable company, didn’t stop taking orders for new cable modems, but there could have been installation delays without Tuesday’s deal. 

A spokeswoman for Redwood City-based ExciteAtHome said she could not confirm the arrangement or whether similar deals were in the works with other cable companies. 

ExciteAtHome’s cable-access service has 3.7 million subscribers, making the company the leading provider of high-speed Internet connections.  

It filed for federal bankruptcy protection in September, and its controlling shareholder, AT&T, plans to buy the company’s network assets for $307 million.

At Berkeley High, a school with about 3,400 students, it’s a challenge for any one student to rise above the crowd and make a name for him or herself. And for a freshman to be recognized by random students in the often-polarized world of high school is quite a feat. 

While a freshman on the Berkeley High girls’ tennis team last season, Megan Sweeney played and won several matches as the ‘Jackets’ top singles player. After each victory, her name floated through the halls and appeared in the school newspaper. The 14-year-old quickly became known for her strong serve and powerful ground strokes. 

“It was a bit overwhelming,” Sweeney said of her instant notoriety. “I had people coming up to me and recognizing me from (articles in) the ‘Jacket. It was kind of neat.” 

Sweeney moved to Oakland from Petaluma when she was 8 years old. A year earlier her stepfather and now-athletics director at UC Santa Cruz, Greg Harshaw, introduced her to tennis. She was instantly drawn to the singles game because it allowed her “to run around a lot.”  

Exercise aside, Sweeney said the opportunity to “wear little tennis skirts” provided the motivation necessary to stick with the sport. Following her early days on the court with a racquet in hand and Harshaw on the other side of the net, Sweeney’s mother signed her up to play at a local recreation center. Three years later, she began training with a coach in a tennis program at Oakland’s Laney College. 

“I saw the 15- and 16-year-olds playing when I was younger and I always wanted to be like them,” she said. “Watching them inspired me to focus on becoming better.” 

Admitting that she wasn’t a tennis prodigy, Sweeney spent hours on the court solidifying her fundamentals and improving her technique. Her hard work paid off. Last year Sweeney was ranked as high as 13th in the Girls’ 14 division in the Northern California section of the United States Tennis Association. She finished the season ranked 34th, according to NorCal USTA.  

Sweeney is now 15 years old and a sophomore at Berkeley High. In June she moved into a higher age bracket in USTA tournaments and now plays competitively in the Girls’ 16 division. Sweeney estimates she plays between 15 and 20 tournaments a year, mostly during the high school off-season. 

After playing in about eight tournaments during the first half of 2001, Sweeney spent much of the summer taking classes at a Pre-College Academy where she was enrolled in trigonometry, chemistry and college writing. Her plans following high school are still undecided, but she knows that it will likely involve tennis. 

She currently spends up to four hours a day on the court practicing, which leaves little time for anything other than schoolwork. When free time is available, it’s quickly filled with photography, spending time with her friends or, having recently acquired her driving permit, behind the wheel of a car. 

“I enjoy driving but it’s been a little bit scary for my mom,” she said.  

These distractions, however, don’t pose a significant threat to her game. When she’s not on the court, Sweeney said she feels as if her “life is boring.”  

The tennis obsession intensified this year when she attended the U.S. Open in New York and saw Gustavo Kuerten, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati, among others, up close serving aces and striking cross-court winners. 

“I would love to do that,” she said of playing in a Grand Slam event. “I would wait to turn pro at least until after high school to get an education and really make sure that I love the game.” 

Now with her second season of Berkeley High tennis well underway, Sweeney’s already set her sights on helping the team reach the North Coast Sectionals. Last year the ‘Jackets finished second to Alameda High in the Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League. In the first meeting this season, Alameda defeated Berkeley 5-2. 

As a freshman, Sweeney began the year in the No. 2 singles spot behind Monique Le, but soon landed in her current position as the ’Jackets’ top singles player. 

“She’s definitely earned the spot,” said Dan Seguin, Berkeley head coach. “Megan has the ability to play the entire court.” 

As a ’Jacket, Sweeney finished last season with just two losses, but both came against Alameda’s top player, Megan Falcon, who finished the year ranked ninth in the Girls’ 14 division of the NorCal USTA.  

In a scrimmage against Piedmont High earlier this season, Sweeney posted the ’Jackets’ only win. Despite the team loss, Seguin pointed to the overall benefit of Sweeney’s victory. 

“It’s nice having someone who’s on a roll,” he said. “It really pumps up the team and for girls who are new to the team, it’s important to have her leadership.”

Lee praises tightened airport safety 

OAKLAND – U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee’s Monday morning press conference at the Oakland International Airport was billed as a briefing on measures to enhance airport security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. 

But Lee, the sole member of congress to oppose the Congressional resolution giving the president the power to go to war, fielded a number of questions on her vote as well. 

“I stand by my position,” said Lee, who represents Berkeley and Oakland, explaining that she thought the resolution modified the principle of governmental checks and balances. “I didn’t believe Congress should be taken out of the loop.” 

She explained further: “While we’re grieving, let’s step back. Let’s see the implications of our actions.” 

The Oakland airport had a new look Monday morning. Parking near the two terminals has been eliminated and lines to the security station snaked out the door and along the side of Terminal 2.  

There are 23 Alameda County Sheriff’s Department officers now stationed at the airport, and the Oakland Police Department’s contingent has increased from eight to 21 officers, Airport Director Steve Grossman said. 

“There is a new normal,” Grossman said. 

“I’m impressed with what the port and the airport are doing to ensure security,” Lee said. 

Still, she’s pushing for more.  

“I want the federalization of security personnel,” she said, underscoring her support for the Airline Security Bill which passed in the Senate 100-0 and is now before the House of Representatives.  

The legislation would authorize the Federal Aviation Administration to assume responsibility for all aviation-related security at all U.S. airports and calls for: 

• Strengthening and locking aircraft cockpit doors to prevent entry by non-flight deck crew members. 

• Authorizing deployment of federal marshals on domestic commercial air passenger flights and all international flights. 

• Making the FAA responsible to screening air passengers and property boarding each aircraft. 

• Allowing the use of Passenger Facility Charges to pay for some of this increased security. 

Lee said she hopes airport security can move toward screening all, rather than just some, baggage. 

These measures will make people want to fly again, Lee said, noting that Oakland flights are back to 90 percent capacity. 

Enhanced security will also include Oakland’s waterways and port. 

At the same time, Lee said she was very concerned with keeping a balance between enhanced security and individual freedom. 

And she said she was concerned about the shift of priorities to war-time expenditures on the federal level. Naming affordable housing, Social Security, and schools, she said: “I do not want to see them shortchanged.” 

HelioTrope, a local medieval ensemble, presented a concert of luscious melodies at Trinity Chapel Saturday night. Some were sung and some were played on a bevy of exotic instruments.  

Before the composers of the Renaissance invented the composition techniques of polyphony and harmony, medieval composers needed to rely on the strength of naked melodies to carry their pieces. These ancient tunes are either powerfully direct or curiously turned and embellished. 

HelioTrope drew from the diverse repertories of troubadours and Andalusian Arabs, in addition to some settings of modern poets in an authentic medieval style. It was a rare treat to hear poems of e.e. cummings and Theodore Roethke sung using ancient melodies, bridging a gap of centuries in a blend that is completely postmodern. 

In addition to modern poetry with medieval tunes, HelioTrope played modern melodies for some ancient verses. Many troubadour manuscripts contain no music notation, so performers are invited to fit existing tunes to the lyrics, or to compose new melodies in the ancient style. The band members are quite adept at this high art. The oud player, Tom Chandler, has mastered this Arabic version of lute so thoroughly that he mixed and blended styles; playing troubadour tunes with Arabic flavor and Arabic tunes in troubadour style.  

The exotic and rare hurdy-gurdy added a delightful region of the aural palette not often represented. Ethan James is a world renowned virtuoso on this instrument which is now mostly associated with French folk music, but was once a staple throughout Europe.  

The vielle wizard, Shira Kammen, breathed passionate life force into the seemingly austere melodic lines of the troubadours. Kammen’s warm, rich tone found the heart of these tunes and sang their soulful stories. Her vielle wept and sighed like a gypsy fiddle, and she even sang a couple of tunes herself.  

Complex, but subtle rhythmic support, was provided by Tobias, a young master percussionist who plays a variety of hand drums, including dumbek, tar and riqq.  

The center of the ensemble was the singer Joyce Todd, who demonstrated her linguistic breadth by singing the program in Arabic, Spanish, Provencal and English.  

Her voice is ideally suited to the troubadour style. She controls her vibrato expertly, using it sparingly as an ornament, rather than applying the common classical warble, which disguises the difficulties of matching pitches in ensembles of instruments with different tuning strategies.  

This pure stream of melody was performed with pure intonation and plenty of heart. The setting ideally suited the style and size of the ensemble.  

Trinity Chapel’s resonance and intimacy highlighted the sustained emotional content of these seeds and fruits of European courtly love.  

The dance melodies might have been more appropriately performed around a gypsy campfire, but this allowed the audience to travel in reverie through space as well as time.  

Future events at Trinity Chapel include a concert by UC Berkeley's Collegium Musicum Friday night. They will perform a selection of John Dowland's compositions for broken consort, including his "Lachrimae" suite, various pavans, galiards, and other Renaissance dances. The historically-informed performance will include the Renaissance Fiddle Band and the Consort of Viols, as well as other instrumentalists and singers.  

Saturday there will be a performance of "The Space Between" featuring Pauline Oliveros, founder and champion of the “deep listening” school. The audience will be asked to listen deeply as the program highlights the relationships between three different tuning systems.  

Oliveros’ accordion, custom-retuned in just intonation, will explore relationships with a piano in modern 12-tone tuning and a Japanese shakuhachi, whose tuning matches neither of the Western instruments. Oliveros focuses on the subtle interplay of the small spaces between the three tunings. Fans of international microtonality should not miss this.  

For other events at Trinity Chapel call 549-3864.

MUSIC 

924 Gilman St. Oct. 19: W.H.N.?, Jellyroll Rockheads, Ex-Claim, Crucial Attack, Sharp Knife; Oct. 21: 5 p.m. Throwdown, Martyr A.D., Bleeding Through, Everytime I Die, Fate 13; Oct. 26: Influents, Plus Ones, Divit, Summerjack, Robot Adrenaline, Claredon Hills; Oct. 27: (Halloween show, $1 off if you’re in a (non-punk) costume!) Babyland, Tsunami Bomb, Scissor Hands, Dexter Danger; All shows start a 8 p.m. unless noted; Most are $5; 924 Gilman St. 525-9926 

Ashkenaz Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Blake’s Oct. 15: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 16: Black Dog Band featuring Peanut McDaniels, $4; Oct. 17: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 18: Ascension, $5; Oct. 19: King Harvest, Sfunk, $5; Oct. 20: Psychokinetics, $5; Oct. 22: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 23: Felice, $3; Oct. 24: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 25: Psychotica, $5; Oct. 26: Planting Seeds, $6; Oct. 27: Felonious, $6; Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Theater 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Nocturne” Through Nov. 11: Tues./Thurs./Sat. 8 p.m., Weds. & Sun. 7 p.m, matinee on Thurs./Sat./Sun. 2 p.m. Mark Brokaw directs Anthony Rapp in One-Man Show. Written by Adam Rapp. $38 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Travesties” Through Nov. 17: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., and Thurs., Nov. 15, 8 p.m. A witty fantasy about James Joyce meeting Lenin in Zurich during World War I. Written by Tom Stoppard, Directed by Mikel Clifford. $10. Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck. 528-5620 

Films 

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Through Oct. 19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Loaded Visions” Oct. 17: 8 p.m. Experimental short films by Antero Alli (Eight Videopoems and “Lilly in Limbo,” plus live music from Sylvi Alli). $5 - $10 sliding scale. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 464-4640 www.verticalpool.com 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 15: 7 p.m., Genesis; Oct. 16: 7:30 p.m., La Région centrale; Oct. 17: 7:30 p.m., Video in the Villages and Amazonian Trilogy; Oct. 19: 7:30 p.m., Jungle Secrets, Yãkwa; Oct. 20: 3:30 p.m., Berkeley High/Bay Area Film Festival; 7 p.m., The Testament of Dr. Mabuse; 9:20 p.m., The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse; Oct. 21: 3:30 p.m., Kiss and Film, 5:30 p.m., Harakiri; Oct. 22: 7 p.m., The Closed Doors; Oct. 23: 7:30 p.m., Super-8mm Films by Theresa Cha; Oct. 24: 7:30 p.m., The Rainy Season and Wai’a Rini; Oct. 26: 7:30 p.m., The Passion of Joan of Arc, 9:15 p.m., Vivre sa Vie; Oct 27: 7 p.m., New Music for Silent Films by UCB Composers; Oct. 28: 5:30 p.m., Vampyr; Oct. 29: 7 p.m., A Time for Drunken Horses; Oct. 30: 7:30 p.m., An Evening with Leslie Thornton; Oct. 31: 7:30 p.m., 9:20 p.m., Saudade do Futuro. 

2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Exhibits 

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon Through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.com 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“2001 James D. Phelan Art Awards in Printmaking” Honorees: Bridget Henry, David Kelso, and Margaret Van Patten. Oct. 19 - Nov. 30 Tues. - Fri. noon - 5 p.m., other times by appointment. Kala Art Institue, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 www.kala.org 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“Musee des Hommages” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Wednesday, Oct. 17

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article – a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

Golden Age Party 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Party for the over 90 club and any who wish to attend. Swing Notes, a women’s acappela group will entertain and there will be refreshments. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave. 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov. 28 

Conversation: Rosemary  

Radford Reuther and Carolyn  

Merchant 

5:30 - 8 p.m. 

#1 LeConte Building, UC Berkeley 

“Women, Religion, Science, and the Environment.” 649-2490 

Thursday, Oct. 18

Simplicity Forum 

7 - 8:30 p.m. 

Claremont Branch Library 

2940 Benvenue Ave. 

Cecile Andrews, author of Circles of Simplicity, Return to the Good Life, speaks on “Rekindling Conversation.” 549-3509 www.seedsofsimplicity.org 

Berkeley Metaphysical  

Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month. 869-2547 

Friday, Oct. 19

Cooperative Center Federal  

Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, honorary chairperson, is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the mistress of ceremonies. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop  

Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Saturday, Oct. 20

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that will be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Sunday, Oct. 21

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Avenue between 3rd and 4th streets. 

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Halloween Magic 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC Auditorium 

1414 Walnut St.  

Los Angeles Magician and Comedian “Hotei the Magic Guy.” For kids 2 to 12 and their parents. $7. 236-7469 www.thebuddyclub.com 

A year ago, on October 9, 2000, my stepfather, Joseph Carleton, died at the age of 67 after a four-month battle with stomach cancer. On this anniversary, I find myself reflecting on how I came to love Joe. 

I’ve sometimes thought that men who marry women with small children must really be in love, because they’re so often entering hostile territory. When Joe first started dating my mother, Ruth, in the mid-1960s, I didn’t like him very much.  

My brother, Jeff, and I met the news of Joe’s engagement to my mother with sullen silence. In addition to the intrusion into our relationship with our mother, I guess we feared being disloyal to our father. And Joe’s flaws as a stepparent mirrored the negative stereotypes of his profession, mechanical engineering: he could be perfectionistic, remote, and overly critical. I remember him going in after we bathed to make sure we hadn’t used too much water (he’d feel the inside of the tub for wetness and warmth to check the level). 

The year 1968 was a turning point, not only for our country – with the Vietnam War raging, the anti-war and civil rights movements filling the streets, the assassinations, and the violence at the Democratic Convention in Chicago – but also in my feelings towards Joe. Although I was only 10, I was well aware of the events of the times. 

One memory stands out. It was April, and I was sitting on the couch in our living room. The front door opened, and I heard a sound I had never encountered before. Joe was sobbing as my mother rushed to meet him. I remember worrying that something had happened to Joe’s mother, my new grandmother.  

“They’ve shot him,” I heard Joe say to my mother, and they held each other tightly as they cried together. Then they joined me on the couch to tell me that the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. had just been killed. I remember Joe piling us all in the car that evening to take us to the one black Baptist church in Palo Alto for an impromptu service, where we were among a handful of white people in a sanctuary overflowing with grief-stricken parishioners. 

Although I already respected my parents’ political involvement on an intellectual level, this was the first time I understood that the motivation for it was deep love. Joe’s work in the civil rights movement came from his heart. 

Over the years, I’ve seen that all the hard work Joe did for many causes came from the same place. His work as an environmentalist and conservation chair of the local Sierra Club chapter stemmed directly from his love of nature; his involvement in the anti-war movement arose out of a heartfelt belief in peace and a fierce patriotism that required him to speak out when he saw his country doing wrong; and his support of farmworkers and the civil rights movement came from a true love of justice. 

I came to see that Joe used his mind and intellect to serve his heart, as he fought for the things he believed in. He was also willing to be of service in smaller ways, fixing an elderly friend’s refrigerator, or going miles out of his way to help a stranger whose car had broken down. And although he was sometimes emotionally distant, Joe was always there to lend a hand when I needed it. 

Now, as our world faces uncertain times, I find myself really missing Joe. I know Joe would be acutely concerned about our nation’s safety and security, and that he’d want the perpetrators of the crimes of September 11 brought to justice, but I also know without a doubt that he would be committed to working for peace and that he’d never stand by silently while our civil liberties were eroded. And his deepest motivation would be love. 

Nancy Carleton is a long-time community activist who has served as chair of the Zoning Adjustments Board and as vice chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission. She is currently active in the growing peace movement. 

Like public and private buildings around the country, City Hall instituted a slew of new security measures Monday in an attempt to make the building safer, while not disrupting public business.  

“All government agencies from the federal to local levels are operating with heightened awareness,” City Manager Weldon Rucker wrote in a Sept. 12 memo to city councilmembers. “Many have implemented considerable security measures as a result of the Sept. 11 events. As part of the city’s overall effort to review, update and exercise our emergency procedures, I will be implementing a new building safety and security plan.” 

All visitors to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center building will now be asked where they are going, then lobby staff will call ahead to that department to announce their arrival. Visitors will wear a name tag, which will include the floor and department they intend to visit. 

In addition, a plainclothes Berkeley police officer will be stationed in the lobby for at least the rest of this week. 

City Communications Manager Stephanie Lopez said the measures are designed to be helpful as well as security conscious.  

“Since the Civic Center reopened (early this year) we’ve needed to update our building plan for how we service the public,” she said. “People should expect to come to the Civic Center and have a safe and pleasant experience while here.” 

Lopez said the city manager’s safety measures are based on common sense. She said public buildings in other cities, such as San Francisco and Oakland, have implemented more intrusive safety measures including metal detector stations and parcel and bag searches. No additional funding will be needed for the new safety measures, she added, since more staff or equipment will not be used. 

Other safety measures include a tow-away zone around the perimeter of the Civic Center and closure of the public rest rooms in the rear of the building until further notice. 

According to the city manager’s memo, all the city’s buildings will be reviewed for safety measures. 

The general response among councilmembers and their aides was favorable to the new safety measures. 

Councilmember Miriam Hawley said she had not yet heard complaints from any of her constituents and that the new measures made city workers feel safer. 

“I suppose some people will be upset by the new security at first but it makes people working in the building feel unafraid,” she said. 

The mayor’s executive assistant, Tamlyn Bright, said the new safety measures are a welcome feature.  

“I think these are appropriate actions and I’m very happy that we are responding the way the rest of the country is,” she said. “This is the least we can do.” 

Councilmember Linda Maio’s aide, Calvin Fong, said the building was a little too open before – at least once a week there is someone wandering around the hallways with no apparent business in the building. He added that people frequently walk into the office.  

“It’s kind of irritating when people come walking right into the office unannounced,” he said.  

Councilmember Betty Olds said she thought the new measures were OK but the tow away zone outside the building was “going too far.” She said she was concerned about older residents who now have to park blocks away to come to the Civic Center. 

Berkeley Resident Frankie Fraser, who had business in the city clerk’s office Monday, said she approved of new safety measures.  

“I think it’s great,” she said. “Especially after you travel abroad and see that this type of thing is common procedure there. We just aren’t used to it yet.”

Editor: 

The Oct. 2 action by Berkeley Councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Linda Maio, Dona Spring, Maudelle Shirek and Margaret Breland to draw new council district boundary lines presents a classic how-to manual in the art of Back Room Dealing. It’s Gerrymandering 101 as follows: 

1) Proclaim yourselves champions of open government and letting the sun shine into all city decisions so that you can act otherwise. 

2) Meet privately behind closed doors with four members of the City Council of the same political persuasion. Be sure this closed-door group is all the same politically. After all, your purpose is to extend your power, not build consensus.  

3) Hammer out a proposal that gives your group the biggest political advantage, ignoring public comment from other groups, like the students, even though you have said you are their friend. Remember, your political purpose comes first. 

4) Keep your proposal a secret by not releasing it until just before the council votes. Show it to a few political friends who are not on the council so they can speak in favor of it. Show it ahead of time to the person who will provide the necessary fifth vote so she won’t have to ask many questions. Don’t show it to the other councilmembers until well after the meeting has started. Certainly don’t show it to the public! 

5) When your proposal is distributed, be sure that it does not come with annoying facts or numbers like those that you insisted be attached to all the other proposals people have been discussing for weeks. 

6) Be sure the motion to approve this new proposal cannot be understood by anyone including Councilmembers and staff. This is best accomplished by including in the motion only census block numbers, not street names. Since no one knows their census block numbers, they won’t be able to figure out how the proposal affects them. 

7) When you approve the proposal, repeatedly say it “meets all criteria,” even if you present no evidence that it does. Claim how wonderful it is. Saying it is the best proposal helps deceive people.  

8) Claim loudly you have student interests at heart by spreading their influence over two Council districts rather than one. Never admit you have reduced District 7’s 18-24 year old registered voters to 45 percent and achieved only 50 percent in District 8: neither percentage being even close to the 55 percent students currently hold in District 7. 

9) Assert that Councilmember Worthington represents students. Ignore comments by current students that they want one of their peers as their representative. 

10) Ignore pesky homeowner neighborhoods in District 8 that are now being pitted against students. They don’t vote for you anyway. 

11) Claim a student should sit on the Council, even though it is likely the door on such a reform has been closed due to the fact you have significantly increased tensions between student and homeowner interests. 

12) When other Councilmembers lodge objections, dismiss them as “sour grapes.”  

But why am I surprised. Kriss Worthington, along with his Assistants, David Blake and Becky O’Malley have been practicing the technique for years. I tell my students at San Francisco State University that in Berkeley we call this style of politics “citizen participation”and deny its existence, while in Chicago it is admitted and referred to as machine politics.  

David Tabb 

Berkeley 

The City Council could find itself the subject of national media attention again if it approves a controversial recommendation by Councilmember Dona Spring, who is asking the council to send letters to congressional representatives and the president calling for an end to U.S. bombing in Afghanistan.  

Berkeley has been in the national eye twice since the Sept. 11 attacks, once over the temporary removal of American flags from fire department vehicles during a protest and once over a controversial statement by a councilmember – a misquote according to Councilmember Dona Spring, picked up by a Wall Street Journal Web site columnist. The quote had Spring saying the United States is a terrorist country, while Spring said she meant that the Afghanis would believe the United States was a terrorist country for dropping bombs on Afghanistan. 

Spring placed the resolution to call for an end to the bombing on the agenda at last week’s meeting as an emergency item, but it failed to get the six votes it needed to be put on the agenda. The nine-member council voted in favor of the item 5-4, with Mayor Shirley Dean and councilmembers Betty Olds, Polly Armstrong and Miriam Hawley voting in opposition.  

Tonight the item needs only five votes to gain approval. The five-member progressive faction, which includes Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek, and councilmembers Spring, Kriss Worthington, Linda Maio and Margaret Breland, is expected to approve the item.  

Counter terrorism equipment 

The council is expected to authorize the city manager to join with the cities of Albany and Emeryville to accept a state grant from the Office of Emergency Services to respond to chemical or biological terrorist attacks. 

The grant will reimburse the city for $54,000 worth of equipment including portable decontamination showers, shelters and antidote kits. 

The fire department has been planning to purchase this equipment for the last six months, but according to a department staff report, Fire Chief Reginald Garcia is asking the council to expedite the purchase “in light of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11.” 

Capturing the wind 

The council is expected to waive fees and expedite permits for a nonprofit advocacy group to erect a wind monitoring station on an unused section of the Berkeley Pier.  

Local Power wants to place the equipment on the pier to test the feasibility of wind-powered, energy-producing technology. The Waterfront Commission has already approved the project.  

The proposed section of pier is ideal for the project because it’s among the windiest sections of the San Francisco Bay, according to the recommendation submitted by Councilmember Linda Maio.  

The report goes on to say that conventional electricity production accounts for about 30 percent of global warming, making it the largest single contributor. While on the other hand, wind power is the greenest electricity source available and is economically competitive with coal and other carbon-based sources of electricity. 

The equipment will be in place for approximately 18 months. The associated costs to the city is approximately $675. 

Un-reinforced masonry 

The council will be presented with an status report by the Planning and Development Department regarding the remaining un-reinforced masonry buildings in the city.  

Since the Un-reineforced Masonry Building Ordinance went into effect after the Loma Prieta Earthquake, 100 of the city’s 301 un-reinforced buildings have been seismically upgraded. That leaves 201 to go, according to a recently prepared Planning Department report. The report also mentions that retrofitting work on some of the remaining buildings has already begun or are near completion.  

According to the report, there are four buildings considered in the highest risk category and another 21 in the medium risk category.  

The privately-owned building highest on the city’s priority list is the California Theater at 2115 Kittredge St. The city’s concern stems from the large numbers of people who attend films there and the historical status of the building itself.  

Because the building is on the State Historic Building Resources Inventory, the Landmarks Preservation Commission had to approve the retrofit plans, which it did in August. According to the report, the theater operator has committed to completing the retrofit by the court-ordered deadline of December. 

City-owned businesses on the URM list include the former Fire Administration Building at 2121 McKinley St., the Facilities Maintenance Building at 1326 Allston Way and the Live Oak Recreation Center at 1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Green building 

The City Council will likely approve and increase in funding for the Green Building Design Assistance Program. The city's housing department is asking for an increase of $5,580 to add building assistance consultations and sessions for private and commercial builders. If the increase is approved, the budget for the program through December 2002 will be $95,000. 

The Green Building Design Assistance Program was established to assist builders make preliminary design decisions about energy systems, building design and environmentally conscious building materials. 

For more information about the program call 705-8187. 

Other items to be considered include: 

• The second reading of the newly-drawn council districts.  

• A charter amendment that, if approved by city voters, would create a student-dominated district, which would likely result in a student being elected to the city council. 

• Authorizing the city manager to accept a $100,000 grant from the Alameda County Public Health Department to launch a smoking prevention campaign aimed at college students. 

• The conversion of all city vehicles to fuel sources that are environmentally friendly.  

Not for the public 

A closed session meeting will be held prior to the regular City Council meeting to continue contract negotiations with the Berkeley Police Association. The council will also hear from legal counsel about a litigation against the city by the 620 Hearst Group, which is currently in Alameda County Superior Court. 

The public will allot 10 minutes to make comments to the public prior to the closing of the meeting, which will be held 2180 Milvia St., in the sixth floor conference room at 5:30 p.m.  

The City Council meeting will be held tonight at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chambers. The meeting will also be broadcast live on KPFA Radio, 89.3 and Cable B-TV, Channel 25.

Editor: 

Are students really under represented? Aren't they allowed to vote? 

If students get their own district, shouldn't others, like public employees or seniors? 

Don't students live all over the city, as well as in neighboring cities? Should districts in those cities be gerrymandered as well? 

Everyone else has to deal with the current political system (as imperfect as it may be). People join associations (neighborhood, professional, etc.), alliances, clubs, non-profits etc., to promote their causes. To legislate special political privilege to citizens of a particular occupation is simply unfair to others. 

I. Dayrit 

Berkeley 

Conductors of a citywide survey on the homeless will present their results to the city council tonight, indicating a strong demand in Berkeley for a legal campground, an expanded shelter system and storage facilities. 

Members of the non-profit organization, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, interviewed members of the city’s homeless population. The 100 respondents were found in shelters, on the streets, and at service-provider centers.  

“Sleep deprivation is the No. 1 problem people talk about,” said Michael Diehl, a community organizer for BOSS.  

He added that of the 52 people who reported sleeping either outside or in a vehicle, 70 percent said they do not have a safe place to sleep. 

Diehl said the survey was conducted, in part, to justify the city council’s April 28 approval of the Homeless Human and Civil Rights Resolution, which made the enforcement of Penal Code Section 647(J) a low priority. The law states that it is a misdemeanor to lodge “in any building, structure, vehicle, or place, whether public or private, without the permission of the owner or person entitled to the possession or in control of it.”  

Critics charge that the law prohibits sleeping anywhere in public.  

“In essence, homelessness itself is criminalized by punishing people for doing things in public because they don’t have a place to do it in private,” said Tirien Steinbach of the East Bay Community Law Center. “Sleeping, drinking, eating, or littering. Things that are basically because of homelessness, there isn’t a choice where people do these things.”  

Steinbach was not involved in the survey. 

Of the survey’s 100 respondents, 61 percent were male, 39 percent female. Sixty-one percent of respondents were African-American, 27 percent white, 7 percent other. According to Diehl, the remaining 5 percent of respondents did not fill out this portion of the survey.  

Just under half of the respondents reported having a physical disability, 42 percent reported mental health problems, 36 percent of respondents reported using drugs, while a quarter said they frequently used alcohol. 

While 7 percent of respondents did not finish high school, 81 percent reported having received a GED or higher level of education. The remaining 12 percent did not fill out this section of the survey, Diehl said.  

A vast majority of individuals surveyed said they were unemployed. Just less than half said they did not have a safe place to store possessions. Diehl said storage facilities are key in finding work and creating stability for the homeless.  

“When people are looking for work they lose their papers,” he said, adding that storage lockers would allow them a place to store resumes, clothes, and other possessions. 

The survey also showed more than three-quarters of those asked said they would use a public campground within Berkeley city limits if available.

Most realtors optimistic in housing market outlook, despite economic climate 

Elizabeth Kim, a Berkeley teacher is house hunting with her husband. Like other home buyers, Kim, 29, is taking advantage of a market with interest rates at a 30-year low. 

“I do find myself hoping the economy will get worse. It’s like I’m taking advantage of the craziness of the world,” said Kim. 

The government is helping home buyers like Kim with interest rates as low as 6.25 percent on a 30-year loan. Buyers are also finding that the slowdown in the economy and the attacks on the East Coast which shook things up even further reduced the number of people able to put their money down on a home. 

Still, a possible recession may not be enough to put a home in the East Bay into the hands of the average resident. 

To buy a home, buyers will need to fork over an average $500,000, according to a June report from the California Realtor’s Association, a trade group. 

Realtors today say almost half of all buyers coming to them are looking for homes costing between $350,000 and $500,000. 

Kim said she is willing to buy a home that costs around $700,000. However, she said, she has looked at homes in neighborhoods like El Cerrito for a better deal. But even then, other prospective buyers overbid them by 15 to 20 percent. 

Ira Serkes, a realtor and author of “How to Buy a Home in California,” said last year’s market was unhealthy. Homes were overpriced because sellers received as many as 15 to 20 bids.  

Today, the market is still active, but he said he is now seeing an average of only three to five bids on a home. 

“I’d call this year’s market healthy,” he said.  

Serkes said prices are remaining stable so far and he’s not seeing a precipitous drop. 

Simon Chen, owner and broker of Realty World Abacus in Fremont, said some sellers are keeping homes off the market in hopes of better economic times.  

This lowers available inventory, Chen said, and may be making it harder for buyers to find affordable homes. 

According to a broker’s report, which lists new homes, there were 180 homes that went up for sale last week. This year, only 164 were listed in the report. 

Chen added that buyers shouldn’t expect a significant drop in the prices of homes; the mean price of a home is going up. 

“That’s because in this area, and all over California, it’s still an attractive place for people to live,” Chen said. 

Ann Tham, an Emeryville resident, was looking at an open house when the realtor told her the asking price was $730,000. 

“It’s ridiculous,” Tham, 33, said. “The property tax is my whole income.” 

Tham, who earns $70,000 a year wants to buy a home to receive a tax break, but knows she can’t afford it. 

“I’m just hoping that the market will go down,” she said. 

Nancy Wallace, a professor who lectures on real estate at UC Berkeley, said prices may fall in the housing market after a significant number of potential buyers are laid-off from their jobs.  

“The best indicator for housing prices will be the unemployment index,” she said. 

The commercial real estate market is also suffering. According to Wallace, there’s a 20-percent vacancy rate in the office space market in San Francisco.  

“The Bay area’s labor market has been seriously hit by the economic downturn,” she said. “People are already losing their jobs and leaving the area.” 

Other economists remain optimistic. 

The increase in government expenditure and tax cuts will boost the economy, said Robert Kleinhen, a San Francisco economist. 

He said we should begin to see a turn-around as soon as November. 

For now though, Wallace said prices have fallen in the South Bay. The market in the East Bay is doing well because it’s less expensive and has amenities, such as public transportation. 

If homes do become more affordable, it will eventually be good news for buyers who can stick out a recession, she said. 

Chen said he is already seeing the benefits of a softening economy on the real estate market. 

He said people who are in today’s market are those who want to sell their homes for a healthy profit, but aren’t looking to cash in. 

“Right now, the people who have unrealistic expectations and want to sell to get rich are staying out of the market,” he said.

SACRAMENTO, — Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation Sunday providing about a dozen rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples to more than 16,000 registered gay, lesbian and senior domestic partners in California. 

Davis also signed twin handgun bills late Sunday that would require gun buyers to pass a written test and demonstrate to a safety instructor that they know how to operate the weapon. 

The domestic partners bill lets those who register with the California Secretary of State’s Office make medical decisions for their incapacitated partners, sue for wrongful death, adopt a partner’s child and will property to a partner. 

“This bill marks a stellar advance for lesbians and gays in California,” said its author, Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco. 

Davis said, “This bill is about responsibility, respect, and most of all about family — and it’s about time.” 

Supporters call Davis’ decision the biggest expansion of domestic partner rights in the country, putting the state alongside Vermont and Hawaii for acceptance of same-sex couples. 

Opponents label it an assault on traditional marriage and family values. In March 2000, more than 60 percent of California voters said that marriage should be between a man and a woman. 

“In one fell swoop, Gray Davis has cheapened every marriage in the state, undermined the vote of the people, pandered to the special interests, frivolously spent taxpayer money and broken his written promise to the citizens of California,” said Randy Thomasson, director of the Campaign for California Families. 

The group rallied in six California cities last week, asking Davis to veto the bill. 

The bill, which goes into effect, Jan. 1, also allows an individual to relocate with a domestic partner without losing unemployment benefits, use sick leave to care for a family member and administer a partner’s estate. 

Davis spent Sunday considering more than 200 bills and was expected to work until the early hours of Monday morning. 

Late Sunday, he signed identical Senate and Assembly bills that require handgun buyers to provide a thumb print, proof of residency, identification and a handgun safety certificate. 

The gun bills’ requirements take effect Jan. 1, 2003. 

Davis also signed a measure to limit the sale of “junk food” in elementary schools. 

The measure by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Whittier, restricts sales of soda at middle schools to after lunch and increases the money schools are paid for lunches for poor children. 

Davis deleted $5.5 million in the bill for grants to local school districts to implement and monitor new nutrition standards. He said the use of federal funds should be explored. 

Davis has vetoed several bills that involved new spending, citing the state’s growing budget crunch. 

He also signed 13 crime bills Sunday while racing toward a midnight bill-signing deadline, including one to fine adults who leave young children alone in cars. 

Davis also signed a bill to make registered sex offenders provide yearly fingerprints, photo and vehicle information. Another allows prosecutors to weigh old drunken driving arrests when trying people arrested again on the same charge. 

Current law allows prosecutors to overlook drunken driving arrests more than 10 years old. 

The governor also signed a bill cracking down on unlicensed workers who help people who can’t leave their homes. The bill, by Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes, D-Fresno, lets people receiving in-home services know if their worker has been arrested before taking the job. 

Davis spent Sunday considering more than 200 bills and was expected to work until the early hours of Monday morning. 

Legislators sent the governor 1,000 bills when they adjourned their 2001 session Sept. 15. Davis had until midnight to sign, veto or let them become law without his signature. 

Most bills take effect Jan. 1. 

RENO, Nev. — All six people exposed to anthrax in a letter at a Microsoft office in Nevada have tested negative for the deadly, inhaled version of the disease, state officials said Monday. 

The nasal swab tests for the final two people came back negative Monday, Washoe County District Health Officer Barbara Hunt said. The other four had tested negative on Sunday. 

State officials were waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to complete tests on the anthrax sample from the letter at Microsoft Licensing in Reno to determine whether it is a disease-causing strain or a harmless vaccine strain. Results were expected Tuesday, Gov. Kenny Guinn said. 

Hunt said the test result was a secondary concern because no one had shown signs of illness. 

“The negative nasal swab tests, combined with the physical condition and location of the letter, indicate that this is a very, very low risk situation even if the CDC results indicate that the anthrax isolate did contain a disease-causing strain,” Hunt said. 

“It is a great relief,” Hunt said. 

Health officials will monitor the six people for the less dangerous form of anthrax, which can result in skin lesions but is highly treatable, she said. 

State officials also were testing a vial filled with powder found aboard an America West flight from Phoenix that was isolated after it arrived at Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Officials suspect the material is harmless and could be a hoax. 

Ten passengers and crew members were subjected to decontamination procedures by a hazardous materials team at the airport early Monday morning, spokesman Adam Mayberry said. The FBI and Federal Aviation Administration were notified. 

An FBI spokesman said Monday from Las Vegas that the agency is investigating whether the letter that tested positive for anthrax was contaminated before or after it was sent to Malaysia then returned to Microsoft in Reno. 

“It is too early to tell,” FBI spokesman Daron Borst told The Associated Press. “Anything is possible at this point.” 

Borst said the FBI will release additional information “if we develop anything that is a public safety issue,” but otherwise won’t be making any statements on the progress of the investigation. 

“If the CDC test comes back positive for the content of anthrax, then yes, it will be considered a criminal investigation,” he said. 

The anthrax was found in the letter on a pornographic picture, which apparently had been cut from a magazine. 

Guinn ordered new training for state employees Monday to help recognize suspicious-looking envelopes and packages. Regular mail was being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service as usual. 

Officials at the state Emergency Operations Center in Carson City said they have turned over about three dozen suspicious envelopes picked up from people in northern Nevada and delivered them to the state health lab in Reno for testing. 

Guinn said Microsoft had sent a check in the letter to a vendor in Malaysia. The letter was returned and the check was still in the letter, along with pornographic material. The vendor wasn’t identified. 

Microsoft representatives contacted U.S. health officials Wednesday after an employee became suspicious about the returned envelope. 

Malaysia’s foreign minister said Monday he believed that the letter did not originate in Malaysia.  

He suggested it might have been tampered with before it was sent to Malaysia. 

“I think definitely there is no truth that the thing originates from Malaysia,” Syed Hamid Albar told reporters after holding talks with a senior U.S. government trade representative. 

Syed Hamid said he told U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick that Malaysia was concerned that unverified anthrax information could cause fear in other countries. Zoellick later met with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. 

The Malaysian government has pledged to prosecute anyone shown to be involved in the Nevada anthrax letter, and to cooperate fully with U.S. investigators. The government has appealed to the FBI for all relevant information. 

“We do not know exactly how the thing originates,” Syed Hamid said. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft officials sought to reassure employees returning to work Monday. About 600 employees work in the Sierra Pacific Power headquarters building in Reno where Microsoft Licensing Inc. leases office space. 

Counseling sessions were held with workers over the weekend and were continuing Monday. 

“What we are trying to manage now are not the medical issues — which the local health officials have done a good job with — but those legitimate emotional concerns that people have,” Sierra Pacific President Jeff Ceccarelli said. 

Dan Leach, a spokesman for Microsoft, said there did not appear to be any great anxiety on the part of 140 Microsoft workers at the office. 

“Any risk is obviously an emotional concern,” he said. “But the people I have talked with seem to be handling it well.” 

All six people being tested — five Microsoft employees and a family member — had some form of contact with the contaminated letter. 

Hunt said the letter contained such a small amount of anthrax that it’s difficult to know whether it was deliberately placed on the picture. 

“There’s always a chance it came from contaminated soil and ended up on the picture accidentally,” she said, adding it’s a matter for law enforcement authorities to decide. 

Borst said it’s too early to tell whether terrorists sent the letter, but “anytime you send anthrax through the mail, the intent is to induce fear and that’s a form of terrorism.” 

LOS ANGELES — Country Joe McDonald is being sued for allegedly stealing the tune of his 1965 protest song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die-Rag” from a 1926 song by famed jazz trombonist Kid Ory. 

The suit was filed last month by Ory’s daughter, Babette Ory, in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Ory claims McDonald stole the tune to her father’s “Muskrat Ramble” and argues that McDonald’s infringement was intentional 

According to the suit, Ory notified McDonald in July that his song infringed on her father’s copyright, but he continued to perform it. Under copyright law, the suit can ask for damages for performances of the song only in the past three years and for any performances since its filing. 

“Damage for intentional infringement can be up to $150,000 for every time the song has been performed over the past three years,” Ory’s lawyer, Neville Johnson, told the Los Angeles Times. “McDonald released it on a record, sang it on a TV series, ’Tales of the City’— it’s hard to tell how much that will amount to. His song is an American classic, it’s just too bad that it infringed on another one.” 

The suit asks for unspecified damages and an order barring McDonald from performing the song. Ironically, it comes just at the time when the recording may be gaining new popularity because of the military action in Afghanistan. 

McDonald, head of one of the leading psychedelic political bands of the 1960s and a solo artist since 1970, conceded that he’s been a fan of Kid Ory but denied he copped the tune.

LOS ANGELES — Country Joe McDonald is being sued for allegedly stealing the tune of his 1965 protest song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die-Rag” from a 1926 song by famed jazz trombonist Kid Ory. 

The suit was filed last month by Ory’s daughter, Babette Ory, in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Ory claims McDonald stole the tune to her father’s “Muskrat Ramble” and argues that McDonald’s infringement was intentional 

According to the suit, Ory notified McDonald in July that his song infringed on her father’s copyright, but he continued to perform it. Under copyright law, the suit can ask for damages for performances of the song only in the past three years and for any performances since its filing. 

“Damage for intentional infringement can be up to $150,000 for every time the song has been performed over the past three years,” Ory’s lawyer, Neville Johnson, told the Los Angeles Times. “McDonald released it on a record, sang it on a TV series, ’Tales of the City’— it’s hard to tell how much that will amount to. His song is an American classic, it’s just too bad that it infringed on another one.” 

The suit asks for unspecified damages and an order barring McDonald from performing the song. Ironically, it comes just at the time when the recording may be gaining new popularity because of the military action in Afghanistan. 

McDonald, head of one of the leading psychedelic political bands of the 1960s and a solo artist since 1970, conceded that he’s been a fan of Kid Ory but denied he copped the tune.

LOS ANGELES — A report on fuel-cell vehicles commissioned by a coalition of government agencies, automakers and other companies concludes that bringing the low-polluting technology to market in California will require an expensive effort that probably won’t be profitable for at least a decade. 

But regulators, industry officials and environmentalists were heartened by the 258-page report, which they called their first comprehensive blueprint for moving fuel cells out of the laboratory and onto the streets. 

“It’s a revolutionary technology. Clearly if it’s going to replace ... the internal combustion engine, we’re certainly going to have many challenges,” said Alan C. Lloyd, chairman of the California Air Resources Board. “But I don’t see any show-stoppers.” 

A fuel cell is a battery powered by the energy generated when oxygen and hydrogen combine. When pure hydrogen is used, the only byproduct is water. 

Only a scattering of fuel-cell vehicles has been produced so far, but state air board rules will require some public transit bus fleets to use fuel-cell buses in demonstration projects by 2003. 

The report released Tuesday by the California Fuel Cell Partnership — which includes the air board, the U.S. Department of Energy, most major automakers and other governments and companies — examined what it would take to put 40,000 new fuel-cell vehicles on the road every year by 2010 or later. 

If needed improvements in fuel-cell technology are developed, “all other challenges to (fuel-cell vehicle) commercialization can be overcome, albeit in some cases with high cost, difficulty and risk requiring public support,” according to the report, written by Bevilacqua-Knight Inc., a Hayward, Calif., consulting group. 

ompanies building the estimated 500 fueling stations needed to support 40,000 California fuel-cell vehicles a year would go about 10 years before the operations started making money, and it would take several years after that to recoup infrastructure investments, said study author Bob Knight. 

“It’s going to be difficult to convince fuel providers that this is a good thing to do,” Knight said. “Government is likely to have to play a bigger role to contribute to this transition ... than they’ve ever done before.” 

Government funds and incentives would be needed to help reduce the financial risks automakers and fuel providers would assume by producing fuel-cell vehicles and facilities, the report found. 

The report examined all the ways the hydrogen needed for fuel cells could be produced, including electrolysis, natural gas, gasoline, ethanol and methanol. All methods need more research before they’re inexpensive enough to be used on a large scale, and all have unique pros and cons. 

Electrolysis is potentially the cleanest way to make hydrogen — depending on how the needed electricity is produced. But setting up 500 fueling stations to dispense hydrogen gas would cost an estimated $235 million. 

Infrastructure would be cheaper for fuel-cell vehicles that used gasoline, ethanol or methanol, but the cars themselves would be more expensive because they would need not-yet-perfected equipment to convert the fuel into hydrogen. 

Even if fuel-cell vehicles ultimately cost about the same as their internal-combustion counterparts, it will be a challenge to convince consumers to try something new, Knight said. 

“It’s not completely clear why a person would want a fuel-cell vehicle instead of a conventional vehicle. It’s very different in a way that could make buyers uncertain, so it’s going to have to have some very appealing aspects to it,” Knight said. 

——— 

On the Net: 

www.fuelcellpartnership.org 

RENO, Nev. — All six people who had contact with a suspicious letter sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office have tested negative for the inhaled form of anthrax, Nevada health officials said Monday. 

Health officials said they will now monitor the six — five Microsoft employees and a family member — for the less dangerous form of anthrax, which is contracted through the skin but is treatable with antibiotics. 

No one has become ill. 

“The negative nasal swab tests, combined with the physical condition and location of the letter, indicate that this is a very, very low risk situation,” said Barbara Hunt, Washoe County’s district health officer. 

State officials were waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to complete tests on the letter’s contents to confirm whether it was contaminated with anthrax. Results were expected Tuesday, Gov. Kenny Guinn said. 

Microsoft officials contacted health officials last week about the letter, which had been sent to the Microsoft Licensing Inc. office. 

Guinn said Microsoft had sent a check in the letter to a vendor in Malaysia. The letter was returned with the check, along with pornographic material. The vendor wasn’t identified. 

An initial test on the letter’s contents produced results “consistent with it being anthrax,” health officials said. The subsequent test was more specific to anthrax, but came back negative. A third test on the pictures tested positive for anthrax, Guinn said. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A majority of California public schools scored better on standardized tests this past academic year, but the results still fell far short of academic performance goals set by the state. 

State school Superintendent Delaine Eastin announced the results Monday from more than 6,700 schools, where the Academic Performance Index will be used to divvy up $257 million in funds this year. 

The state calculates the index based on the Standardized Testing and Reporting exam, or STAR test. Education officials track changes in each school’s rating as part of recent school reform efforts. 

During the 2000-01 academic year, 20 percent of public schools reached the state-set performance target, up from 17 percent the year before and 12 percent in the 1998-99 academic year. State education officials attributed this year’s rise to the nearly three quarters of schools that increased their index scores over 1999-2000. 

But the gains appeared to be wider than they were deep. 

Just 57 percent of schools increased their scores at the rate set by the state — down from 71 percent during 1999-2000. 

Eastin put a positive spin on the decline. 

“An outstanding number of schools showed major gains on their 1999-2000 API reports,” she said, “and this could not be expected every year.” 

The index ranges from 200 to 1,000. Legislation passed in 1999 offers schools that score below 800 incentives to improve their performance each year. That improvement must equal 5 percent of the gap between the score and the performance target. So, for example, a school that scored 600 on the index in 1999-2000 would have to increase its score by 10 points — 5 percent of the 200-point difference between 600 and 800. 

Schools that cannot show that one-year improvement lose access to the extra state money. Those that underperform over several years may face local review or stiff state sanctions. 

To be eligible for extra state funds, a school’s index must rise both across the board and within specific racial populations. 

Two Los Angeles County schools provide a good example. 

Monroe Elementary in Lakewood and Ramona Elementary in Bellflower both scored 579 in 1999-2000. Last academic year, Monroe scored 626 and Ramona scored 623 — gains of 8 percent that should have qualified both schools for extra state money. 

But Ramona did not qualify for funds, because its scores among black students rose only five points. Those scores would have had to rise nine points to qualify, according to Pat McCabe, the department of education analyst who designed and tabulated the index. 

High schools are finding it particularly difficult to meet the state goals, the new results show. 

While nearly two thirds of elementary schools and half of middle schools made such improvements, barely a quarter of high schools did. 

“We continue to be concerned with the lack of progress at the high school level,” Eastin said, adding that a new high school exit exam may soon boost scores. 

Nearly 4.5 million public school students in second through 11th grades took the STAR test last spring. The exam has two main parts: the national Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford 9) and questions written for California schools based on state standards of what each grade should learn. 

While 57 percent of schools did meet growth targets, only about 48 percent are eligible for extra money in 2001-02 under legislation Gov. Davis signed Sunday. Among the reasons for the difference is that not enough students took the test at some schools, said department of education spokesman Doug Stone. 

Davis said Monday he thinks the tests are a good way to assess schools. 

“This public index encourages schools to stay focused on progress,” Davis said. “Our schools, students and teachers are working hard to meet the challenge of higher expectations.” 

Sometimes, though, the index may not accurately measure a school’s progress. 

Take Bodega Bay Elementary School, which fell from a 718 score in 1999-2000 to 581 last year — a 137 point drop that was the state’s largest. 

The kindergarten through fourth grade school has only 37 students, a population small enough that a few poor performers can skew the results, said Stephen Rosenthal, superintendent of the district that oversees the school. 

“Next year, we may increase 200 points because of one or two kids,” Rosenthal said. “It’s not fair.” 

With a score of 975, Faria Elementary School in Cupertino topped the list. 

Principal Dolly Travers credited the school’s “academic and traditional environment” for high scores among the 379 students tested. But she also said the scores only go so far. 

“We don’t get too carried away by this,” Travers said. “The kids are most important. They’re more important than the API.” 

——— 

On the Net: 

Department of Education’s: http://api.cde.ca.gov/ 

LOS ANGELES — Displays of patriotism have a limit in what Los Angeles police officers can wear on their uniforms, and some of them aren’t happy about the restrictions. 

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, some officers began wearing flag pins and other patriotic decorations around their badges to show support for New York City officers who died in the tragedy, as well as for the country in general. 

Recently, Deputy Chief Michael J. Bostic, who runs the Los Angeles Police Department’s human resources bureau, reminded them that only one flag lapel pin is allowed on their uniforms. It is the one containing the “DARE America” flag, which also promotes the department’s anti-drug program, Bostic said in a memo issued at the end of last month. 

“A couple of officers have been making waves about it, saying the policy has stifled their ability to display their patriotism,” Lt. Horace Frank, a police spokesman, said Monday. 

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Frank added, saying the department encourages displays of patriotism “but with the caveat that our officers be uniform in their appearance.” 

He noted that police officials have also approved an American flag decal for patrol cars and other department vehicles. 

Don Lint, director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said that isn’t good enough for many officers, adding at least 70 have expressed their unhappiness to him about the restrictions. 

“Officers are upset with the DARE pin because it’s promoting the program, it’s not promoting the ’United We Stand’ theme that the country is looking for right now,” Lint said. 

The union, which represents more than 8,000 officers, has ordered 10,000 American flag pins with the words “Remember 9-11” at the bottom. 

Lint said he hopes to discuss the new pins with Bostic but so far hasn’t been able to reach him. 

OAKLAND — Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., has opened a field office in Oakland. 

The only California field office will expand the reach of the organization’s work on its core issues, which include campaign finance reform, food and automobile safety, prescription drug pricing and corporate responsibility. The new office also puts Public Citizen in a prime location for its work on international trade and energy policy. 

Public Citizen was founded in 1971 by consumer advocate Ralph Nader to fight for consumer interests in the legislatures, courts and regulatory agencies. Nader left the organization in 1980. The non-profit also has a Texas field office which opened in 1984. 

The organization has five policy groups. 

Congress Watch tracks congressional actions on health policy and campaign finance reform and monitors attacks on the civil justice and regulatory systems. The Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program is devoted to studying nuclear safety, food irradiation and energy issues. 

Global Trade Watch campaigns for social and economic justice in international trade agreements. The Health Research Group works for prescription drug safety and healthcare delivery, and the Litigation Group fights in the courts for corporate and government responsibility. 

SAN JOSE — A hang glider spotted the car of an elderly couple Monday who had been missing since late last week after their car ran off the road into dense brush. 

Mark Cogan, 81, and his wife Dvora, 80, were sighted off Skyline Boulevard. Both were suffering from dehydration and were being held overnight for observation at Stanford Medical Center. 

A man who was hang gliding noticed the car, which was not visible from the road, and called 911, said Officer Joseph Deras of the San Jose Police Department. Park rangers found Mark Cogan, who is partially blind, trying to climb a cliff to look for help. 

Deras said Dvora Cogan is legally blind. The couple originally is from Russia. 

They reportedly called relatives from a cell phone Thursday night to report their car had run off the road near the San Tomas Expressway. Police searched the area extensively over the weekend with no luck. 

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Monday ordered the return of passports taken from nine Greenpeace protesters and one free-lance journalist arrested in July following a demonstration against the “Star Wars” missile defense system. 

The defendants — from Canada, Germany, Sweden, Australia, India and the United Kingdom — will now be able to travel home before returning to Los Angeles for the trial scheduled for Nov. 20. 

They and seven others, including another free-lance journalist, were arrested after the group allegedly rowed rafts into an exclusion zone near Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast base on July 14. 

They are charged with conspiring to violate a safety zone, a felony, and a misdemeanor count of entering military property without permission. If convicted, they each face up to 6 1/2 years in prison and about $250,000 in fines. 

Also on Monday, the 17 defendants pleaded not guilty to charges in a second superseding indictment, which is factually the same as the previous one, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

Following their arrest, the six defendants from the United States were given immediate bail and those from other countries had their passports seized and all but one had their travel restricted to central California, Greenpeace officials said.

LOS ANGELES — A lawsuit filed by power supplier Duke Energy against the California Independent System Operator and another state agency in hopes of getting paid for electricity will continue, a judge ruled Monday. 

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter refused to dismiss the lawsuit, saying he wanted to proceed and have the parties work out the issues. 

In a lawsuit filed in February, Duke claimed it provided millions of dollars in energy to cash-strapped California utilities under orders from the ISO without ensuring that it would be paid. The action also named the state Department of Water Resources, which is in charge of buying wholesale electricity for the utilities. 

“The power is just going out there and is being taken,” said Seth Ribner, a lawyer for Duke. “You have to pay for power because it is unconstitutional to steal it.” 

Cal-ISO, manager of the state’s power grid, argued that Duke failed to state what specific violation it is accusing the grid operator of committing. The DWR, in charge of buying wholesale electricity, contends it only backs the transactions and is not actively involved in them. 

Both parties asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit. 

John Saurenman, a lawyer for the DWR, also argued that the lawsuit was premature, adding that officials are implementing a process to pay energy suppliers. 

“This is not a case whether Duke will get paid,” he said. “It is simply when and how.” 

If Duke cooperates, it could be “paid in full by the end of the year,” the attorney said. 

LAS VEGAS — Three employees of a Las Vegas hobby rocket company and three firefighters were treated for burns and smoke inhalation after a warehouse explosion just after noon Monday. 

A 65-year-old man and a 24-year-old man were reported in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns, while a 52-year-old man was in fair condition with first- and second-degree burns, a University Medical Center spokesman said. 

“The three male firefighters were treated and released for smoke inhalation,” said hospital spokesman Rick Plummer. 

Employees working next to AeroTech Inc. reported hearing two explosions come from one of the rocket company’s warehouses, Las Vegas fire spokesman Steve La-Sky said. 

“People in the auto shop next door said the first explosion rocked the building and cracked their wall,” he said. “They said they ran out of the building after the first explosion.” 

That’s when La-Sky said the second and larger of the explosions created a 100-foot fire ball. 

“It’s amazing we have no fatalities,” he said. 

Three AeroTech employees who were originally reported missing were found, La-Sky said. Two were burn victims and the third was uninjured. 

About 50 firefighters and 12 units put out the three-alarm blaze by 1 p.m., La-Sky said. But by late afternoon, the fire reignited and firefighters remained on the scene waiting for the fire to burn itself out after failing to contain with water using ladders. 

About 2,500 pounds of ammonium perchlorate, a powder form of a chemical used in rocket fuel, and about 800 pounds of magnesium were stored in AeroTech’s warehouse making it too dangerous for fire crews to fight the blaze from the ground, La-Sky said. 

Authorities began evacuating residents living within a one-mile radius of the burning warehouse after 6 p.m because of the hazardous chemicals. 

Fire investigators were trying to determine the cause of the fires and the amount of damages, La-Sky said. 

It was the second workplace explosion to rock the state in a month and it renewed calls for strict oversight of companies handling hazardous materials. 

On Sept. 17, a series of explosions at Depressurized Technologies International, an aerosol recycling plant in Minden, left one man dead and four others hospitalized. 

Workers’ rights groups say earlier reforms involving businesses dealing with hazardous materials are not being taken seriously. 

State regulatory changes made after two deadly blasts in 1998 seem to have been forgotten, said Tom Stoneburner, director of Reno-based Alliance for Workers’ Rights. 

“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and get it right,” he said. “We can’t keep exposing our workers to these kinds of things when we send our families off to work every day.” 

In 1998, an explosion at Sierra Chemical, an explosives manufacturing plant east of Reno, killed four workers and injured six, while the another explosion at Pacific Engineering and Production Co. in Henderson, killed two people and injured more than 300. 

“We thought we had fixed it (through legislation),” Stoneburner said. “Then along comes the blast at DTI in Minden.” 

Stoneburner’s group is part of a coalition that has asked Gov. Kenny Guinn to establish a commission to investigate workplace safety. 

Michael Hillerby, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, said a commission wasn’t necessary. 

“We have very good laws that protect workers,” he said. “Anytime anything happens it encourages all the parties involved to take a closer look, but a commission isn’t a magic bullet to make things better. Accidents, sadly, are going to happen.” 

According to its Web site, AeroTech is the largest supplier of technically advanced rocket motors for the hobby rocket market. 

The company also produces rocket motors for the motion picture special effects industry that have been featured in films including “Star Trek: Generations” and “Tomorrow Never Dies.” 

SAN LUIS OBISPO — A parole hearing for one of the men who kidnapped and buried a busload of school children 25 years ago was postponed Monday. 

Richard Allen Schoenfeld requested his parole hearing be put off because his father recently died and he didn’t have time to prepare, according to Denise Schmidt, a spokeswoman for the Board of Prison Terms. 

The hearing has not been rescheduled, she said. 

Schoenfeld was arrested about two weeks after he, his brother James and Frederick N. Woods, all scions of wealthy San Francisco Peninsula families, commandeered the bus on July 15, 1976, near Chowchilla in the San Joaquin Valley. 

They transferred their hostages to two vans, drove about 100 miles north and put them in a moving van they had buried in a quarry owned by the Woods family in Livermore. 

While they were trying to arrange for the ransom, bus driver Ed Ray and some of the older boys dug their way out of the truck and summoned help. 

Richard Schoenfeld turned himself in six days after the kidnapping. He has been denied parole 16 times. 

On one side is a massive fiscal stimulus effort of tax cuts and spending increases. On the other is the fear and uncertainty of the public about a war without precedent. 

This is the battle of the home front, the war to keep the economy strong and ward off or mitigate impending recession. 

No greater economic power has been assembled before in the lifetime of most adult Americans, since government-decreed fiscal and monetary efforts are augmented by manufacturer, retailer, airline and hotel discounts. 

And, at least for the time being, a surprising decline in the prices of gasoline and heating oil has reduced tensions on business and home budgets, freeing funds for saving or spending. 

Aiding the effort are interest rates that in some instances already have effectively dropped to zero when adjusted for inflation, and prices that have remained stable for months at relatively reasonable levels. 

The signals so far are mixed. Unemployment is creeping higher, but late reports of a decline in jobless claims is encouraging. Although stock prices remain volatile, they rebounded after initially plunging. And while retailers endured a terrible September, carmakers held their own. 

Early indicators, however, might not be reliable, since the shock effect could only have been negative. Businesses and consumers might reassess their possibilities, especially as the economic lures become clearer. 

Immediately after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center a survey of small business attitudes showed many canceling their hiring and capital spending plans, and expressing deep pessimism for sales. 

But, as economist William Dunkelberg told Congress, “At least 85 percent of small-business owners benefit from income tax relief, which would provide a broad base for economic recovery.” 

Such relief and more is now in the works, and Dunkelberg, chief economist of the National Federation of Independent Business, indicated that such measures could greatly change confidence, hiring and spending. 

How quickly all this could occur is still up in the air; there is a necessary time lag between enactment of economic lures and their impact, and additional economic deterioration could occur in that time. 

“Things are only starting to get worse,” economist Peter Hooper of Deutsche Bank told clients. In the year’s final quarter, he said, “we think the economy could contract twice as much” as in the earlier quarter. 

Such negative comments are based on hard experience in months past when, through interest rate cuts, the Federal Reserve sought and failed to stir the economy. Eventually, such lures are likely to pay off. But when? 

The stock market is another story, since it peeks into the future more than it deals with the present. In each of the past nine recessions it has bottomed at least four months before the economy. 

Watch it for signals. While, sadly, it has shown a high degree of fallibility, it is after all activated by institutions and people who are willing to put their money on the line. 

Already there are signs it sees something better out there in the immediate future, and the unprecedented number of lures dangling before the economy suggest it may not be seeing things.

SAN FRANCISCO — A major credit agency placed San Francisco International Airport on its “negative” outlook list Monday in anticipation of steep declines in passenger volume amid widespread anxiety raised by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Fitch Inc. predicted the San Francisco airport will suffer a 25 percent drop in domestic passengers and a 15 percent decline in international traffic for the remainder of the fiscal year ending June 30. 

The agency expects the downturn and increased security costs to saddle the airport with a $100 million budget shortfall that will force management to slash expenses, lobby for money from the federal government and possibly raise its fees. 

Airport officials didn’t immediately return calls Monday. 

Fitch’s decision to change the San Francisco airport’s credit outlook from “evolving” to “negative” doesn’t immediately affect its bond rating, which remains at “AA-.” 

Fitch also issued negative warnings on several other major airports, including: St. Louis, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Memphis, Tenn. and Charlotte, N.C. 

All are suffering from the aftershocks of the Sept. 11 attacks, but the San Francisco airport is facing additional pressures caused by the technology industry downturn, which already had cut into business travel, according to Fitch. 

The San Francisco airport also is facing intense competition from nearby airports in Oakland and San Jose, where discount carrier Southwest Airlines operates its regional hubs, said Fitch analyst Jessica Soltz. 

Fitch hasn’t changed its outlook on the San Jose and Oakland airports.

SUNNYVALE — Getting behind a growing trend in Web commerce, Yahoo! Inc. plans to soon launch a new shopping category that will offer used and clearance merchandise at set prices. 

Items for sale in Yahoo’s new “warehouse” category will be featured in search results and on the site’s shopping pages, complementing auctions, virtual “stores” that sell new products and regionally based classified ads for goods and services. 

Sellers in the Yahoo warehouse will be able to type in numbered product codes on their books, compact discs and other discount merchandise to call up descriptions of the items. Yahoo will not charge to list items but will take a yet-to-be-disclosed commission on successful sales. 

A similar system was started in 1999 by Half.com, which was bought last year by eBay Inc. and is being incorporated into eBay’s site to satisfy the growing interest in its “buy it now” feature. Amazon.com also lets companies and individuals sell used merchandise at set prices. 

Yahoo’s warehouse, scheduled to be rolled out by the end of the month, “is an outgrowth of what consumers have started to tell us over the last six to 12 months,” said Brian Fitzgerald, a Yahoo senior producer. “Consumers absolutely want this sort of control and choice.”

SAN FRANCISCO — With demand for its business software evaporating, fallen Internet star Commerce One Corp. said Monday it will shed 1,300 jobs, or nearly half its work force. 

The Pleasanton-based company said 700 of its 2,800 employees will be laid off. The cuts began Monday, Commerce One spokesman Andrew McCarthy said. 

Another 600 jobs will be jettisoned by spinning off operations unrelated to Commerce One’s primary product — so-called “business-to-business” software designed to create online exchanges for corporate customers. 

The spin-offs will be concentrated among several small consulting companies that Commerce One acquired in a $1.65 billion purchase of AppNet Inc. last year, McCarthy said. 

Commerce One has been retrenching much of this year. The company began the year with 3,700 employees. 

The latest purge is long overdue, said industry analyst Bob Austrian of Banc of America Securities in San Francisco. 

“The demand for the company’s product has already shown its true colors,” Austrian said. “Management is slowly aligning its costs with the reality of its revenue.” 

The company provided an inkling of the job cuts last week when it warned that its third-quarter revenue would range from $80 million to $83 million, well short of the $100 million in revenue that management had forecast in July. 

Commerce One also said it will lose 24 cents to 25 cents per share, worse than the consensus loss estimate of 23 cents per share among analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

In last year’s third quarter, Commerce One lost 9 cents per share, excluding one-time charges, on revenue of $113 million. Through the first half of this year, the company had lost $2.57 billion on revenue of $271.5 million. 

Commerce One’s comedown largely reflects the growing disillusionment with business-to-business software, which initially enthralled investors by promising to revolutionize the way companies bought and sold goods. But the software hasn’t lived up to the hype, causing businesses to delay purchases and investors to dump the stocks of companies specializing in the sector. 

Commerce One’s shares gained 21 cents to close at $3.50 Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock, which went public in July 1999, peaked at a split-adjusted $135.63 in early 2000. 

To weather the turbulence, Commerce One has deepened its ties to German software giant SAP, which invested more than $200 million for a 20 percent stake in the company. The investment stirred talk that SAP eventually will take complete control of Commerce One. 

——— 

On The Net: 

http://www.commerceone.com 

WASHINGTON — Breast cancer risk increases by 8 percent to 60 percent for women who work the night shift for many years, according to two studies that suggest the bright light at night diminishes the body’s supply of melatonin and increases estrogen levels. 

Researchers said the fact that two independent studies, using different methods, found roughly the same results suggest strongly that working the graveyard shift for long periods of time may lower the body’s resistance to breast cancer and, perhaps, to other types of cancer. 

“We are just beginning to see evidence emerge on the health effects of shift work,” said Scott Davis, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and first author of one of the studies. He said more research was needed before a compelling case could be made to change night work schedules, however. 

“The numbers in our study are small, but they are statistically significant,” said Francine Laden, a researcher at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and co-author of the second study. 

Both studies appear Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 

“These studies are fascinating and provocative,” said Larry Norton of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “Both studies have to be respected.” 

But Norton said the findings only “hint” at an effect on breast cancer rates from nighttime work and “raises questions that must be addressed with more research.” 

In Davis’ study, researchers explored the work history of 763 women with breast cancer and 741 women without the disease. 

They found that women who regularly worked night shifts for three years or less were about 40 percent more likely to have breast cancer than women who did not work such shifts. For women who worked at night for more than three years, the relative risks went up to 60 percent. 

The Brigham & Women’s study, by Laden and her colleagues, found only a “moderately increased risk of breast cancer after extended periods of working rotating night shifts.” 

The study was based on the medical and work histories of more than 78,000 nurses from 1988 through May 1998.  

It found that nurses who worked rotating night shifts at least three times a month for one to 29 years were about 8 percent more likely to develop breast cancer.  

For those who worked the shifts for more than 30 years, the relative risk of breast cancer went up by 36 percent. 

American women have a 12.5 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Laden said her study means that the lifetime risk of breast cancer for longtime shift workers could rise above 16 percent. There are about 175,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed annually in the United States and about 43,700 deaths. Breast cancer is the second only to lung cancer in causing cancer deaths among women. 

Both of the Journal studies suggested that the increased breast cancer risk among shift workers is caused by changes in the body’s natural melatonin cycle because of the bright lights during the dark hours. 

Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland during the night. Studies have shown that bright lights reduces the secretion of melatonin. In women, this may lead to an increase in estrogen production and increased estrogen levels have been linked to breast cancer. 

“If you exposed someone to bright light at night, the normal rise in melatonin will diminish or disappear altogether,” said Davis. “There is evidence that this can increase the production of reproductive hormones, including estrogens.” 

Davis said changes in melatonin levels in men doing nighttime shift work may increase the risk of some types of male cancer, such as prostate, but he knows of no study that has addressed this specifically. 

Both Laden and Davis said the melatonin-estrogen-breast cancer connection is still a theory that will require more research to prove or disprove. 

Dr. S. Eva Singletary, a breast cancer specialist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, said the two studies show “a small relative increase in breast cancer risk, but nothing to become alarmed about.” 

More study is needed to precisely define the risk of shift work and how that compares to other known breast cancer risk factors, such as family history, smoking and obesity, said Singletary. But she said the finding does suggest the need for women who work night shifts to be particularly prudent in following breast cancer screening recommendations calling for regular mammograms and medical exams. 

——— 

On the Net: 

American Cancer Society: www.cancer.org 

Journal of the National Cancer Institute: http://jnci.oupjournals.org/ 

National Cancer Institute: http://www.nci.nih.gov/ 

WASHINGTON— The Environmental Protection Agency hopes to clear the lungs of millions of children exposed each year to secondhand smoke through a public relations campaign that encourages parents who smoke to light up outdoors. 

The EPA has found that children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from bonchitis and pneumonia, wheezing and coughing spells, ear infections and more frequent and severe asthma attacks. 

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. 

It has been classified by the EPA as a known cause of lung cancer in people, resulting in several thousand lung cancer deaths in non-smokers each year. 

Joining the EPA in the $1.5 million campaign Tuesday are the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology, the Consumer Federation of America and the National Association of Counties. 

The counties’ organization, for example, agreed to help gather parent signatures to commit to smoking outside as part of the overall public relations health campaign. 

The consumer group said a new survey indicates that 70 percent of parents who smoke and who claim to have been previously unaware of the harmful effects would take their tobacco outside to protect their children. 

“We don’t think the public is very aware of how many children are involuntary victims of secondhand smoke,” Jack Gillis, the group’s public affairs director, said Monday. 

The National Cancer Institute has said there are links between secondhand smoke and sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, new cases of childhood asthma and behavioral and cognitive problems in children. 

It was 10 years ago when 25 lives were lost and over 3,000 homes, businesses and buildings were demolished by the devastating fire that swept through the East Bay hills region.  

In remembrance of the tragedy, California’s 2001 Wildfire Conference was held at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland where the three-day event gave representatives from different agencies, cities and universities an opportunity to talk about many of the lessons learned from previous fires and to share information on fire prevention and readiness. 

“The idea is really to empower people and agencies and to make a difference to the potential threat of fires,” said Kenneth S. Blonski, fire mitigation advisor for the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Forest Products Laboratory. 

Blonski said the conference, which started Wednesday and ended Friday, was an opportunity for attendants to share valuable, life-saving information. However, the biggest challenge is figuring out ways to educate the public and to encourage them to change their behavior to become fire safe. 

Monday, Oct. 15

Rite of Christian Initiation for  

Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask. 526-4811 

Emergency Preparedness  

Workshop 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Anna Swardenski speaks to help seniors and people with disabilities be more prepared in case of an emergency. 

Franciscanism, Understanding  

the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Rent Stabilization Board 

7:05 p.m. 

City Council chambers 

2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way  

Public Hearing on the 2002 Annual General Adjustment. 

Interfaith Couples Look at  

Love and Choices 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Two films to stimulate discussion about interfaith families, love and identity. $25 per couple. 548-0237 

Tuesday, Oct. 16

Crabby Chef Competition 

4 p.m. 

Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto 

1919 Fourth St.  

Top East Bay chefs compete to create the best crab dish. Free.  

5 - 7 p.m. Fund-raising Reception for the Visual and Performing Arts Group of Berkeley High School. $25 donation. 845-7777 

Similarities between Jewish  

and Deadhead Spirituality 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

It’s been observed that a disproportionate number of deadheads are Jews. Dr. Leora Lawton, researcher of deadhead culture, explores the fascinating parallels between Jewish and deadhead rituals. $25 public, $15 members. 548-0237 

The Berkeley Garden Club 

2:15 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

“Yearlong Garden Color with Bulbs” with Retired Director, Regional Botanic Gardens, Wayne Roderick. The program includes slides of flowering bulbs ideally suited to the East Bay climate. 524-4374 bgardenclub@aol.com 

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium - Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight way 

“Herbal Alternatives and Drug Interactions for Fibromyalgia.” 601-0550 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Israel and Palestine: Why the  

Oslo Peace Process Failed 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Speaker Joel Beinin is a Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University: “The Oslo Declaration of Principles... was supposed to bring peace and stability to the Middle East... the entire region is more unstable than a decade ago. Why have the hopes of so many people for a just peace been disappointed?” He will also address the relationship between U. S. policy, the Arab-Israel conflict, and events of this kind. 863-6637 

Wednesday, Oct. 17

 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

 

Golden Age Party 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Party for the over 90 club and any who wish to attend. Swing Notes, a women’s acappela group will entertain and there will be refreshments. 

 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov 28 

 

Conversation: Rosemary  

Radford Reuther and Carolyn  

Merchant 

5:30 - 8 p.m. 

#1 LeConte Building, UC Berkeley “Women, Religion, Science, and the Environment.” 649-2490 

 

---

Thursday, Oct. 18

Berkeley Metaphysical  

Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month. 869-2547 

Friday, Oct. 19

Cooperative Center Federal  

Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, honorary chairperson is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the MC. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop  

Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Saturday, Oct. 20 

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that wukk be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Sunday, Oct. 21

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets. Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Editor: 

On Sept. 12 nearly 40 residents of Strawberry Creek Lodge joined together to express our support to Rep. Barbara Lee for her courageous act in standing as the sole voice in Congress in saying “no” to giving President Bush open ended funding for wiping out whole countries “harboring” terrorists. 

In the wake of the escalating frenzy for war from the White House, the halls of Congress, the military, the media and those who stand to profit, the people of our country are being rapidly brain-washed. It is time to slow down this barrage and let the voices of reason be heard through the media. 

Please publish the contents of our message to Rep. Barbara Lee which follows. 

“We the undersigned residents of Strawberry Creek Lodge congratulate our courageous representative, Barbara Lee for her vote in opposition to the war powers resolution. We agree that the perpetrators of the terrorist bombings must be brought to justice, but we believe that more killing can only result in the death of innocent people. In addition we have to ask, what is it in U.S. foreign policy that results in such blind hatred toward the United States?” 

Your paper has the duty to reflect feelings and opinions of readers who are opposed to bombing other countries thus causing a long and deadly war. 

Sept. 11 should remind all Americans that violence begets violence. Those behind this fearful terror must be found and punished. The frightening war propaganda should be restrained now. Please join us in calling for “Justice not Vengeance.” 

Robin Hipolito 

For the Legislative Committee 

Strawberry Creek Lodge 

Berkeley 

By Jared Green 

Daily Planet Staff 

The Cal Bears gave their worst performance of a dismal season on Saturday, putting up a lackluster effort in losing, 48-7, to Oregon. The Bears were shut out until a meaningless fourth-quarter touchdown pass from Kyle Boller to Joe Igber, and the defense allowed 463 total yards to the Ducks, including 257 yards on the ground. 

“I’m completely flabbergasted by our total lack of execution,” Cal offensive coordinator Al Borges said after the game. “There’s no excuse for playing like that.” 

The Bears were equally helpless on offense, defense and special teams. Quarterback Kyle Boller followed up his outstanding effort in a loss to Washington two weeks ago with a terrible game, completing just 18 of 40 pass attempts and getting yanked in the fourth quarter. The Bears turned the ball over five times, including interceptions on backup Eric Holtfreter’s first two series in the game and a fumbled punt by return man Ray Carmel.  

On defense, Cal missed a busload of tackles, including one play that looked like a Three Stooges schtick, as Oregon wide receiver Sami Parker took a simple out pattern and scored a 37-yard touchdown while three Bears fell over each other trying to tackle him. 

That score was one of three for the fifth-ranked Ducks in the first quarter, giving them a 21-0 lead and snuffing any Cal hopes for an upset. Harrington scored on a two-yard sneak to open the scoring, and running back Onterrio Smith went in from the same distance on a sweep as the quarter wound down. 

“The first couple of series, everything they did was right,” Cal head coach Tom Holmoe said. “On defense, it seemed like every time we called a play they were right on it.” 

Even when the Bears caught a break, they couldn’t take advantage. Oregon tailback Maurice Morris dropped a pitch early in the second quarter, and Cal freshman defensive end Lorenzo Alexander was there to fall on it at midfield. But the Bears went three-and-out, missing their best chance to score before halftime. 

Carmel’s fumble came with just 1:28 left in the half, and Oregon linebacker Wesly Mallard recovered on Cal’s 24-yard line. Four plays later, Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington found tight end Justin Peelle for a 16-yard touchdown pass as Cal safety Bert Watts slipped down on the coverage, and the Ducks had a commanding 28-0 halftime lead. 

Oregon scored two more touchdowns in the third quarter as the Ducks piled up 140 rushing yards in the period, including a 40-yard scramble by the slow-footed Harrington. Morris scored from 13 yards out shortly afterward, juking Cal safety Dewey Hale out of his shoes on the way to the end zone. Wideout Keenan Howry then scored on a 25-yard reverse, using a nice lead block from Harrington to get around the corner. 

“I’ll do anything I have to in order to win the game,” Harrington said of his block on the 280-pound Alexander. 

Although the announced attendance at the game was 34,452, Memorial Stadium emptied quickly after halftime, as the Cal student section found more enjoyable entertainment outside the stadium. By the fourth quarter, the only noise was coming from the sizeable Oregon contingent.  

The deserters missed Cal’s lone score, a six-yard pass from Boller to Igber that capped a 69-yard drive. Morris put the final nail in Cal’s coffin soon after, however, on an 11-yard scoring run. 

NOTES: This Saturday’s game against undefeated UCLA means Cal has yet to face a team with a loss coming into the matchup. The Bears’ first six opponents are a combined 32-2 so far this season... Oregon freshman Ramone Reed, who starred for Berkeley High last year, had 3.5 tackles on Saturday, including a hit on Charon Arnold on the opening kickoff. Reed narrowly missed a sack on Holtfreter late in the game.

Just as the dust was settling after the City Council brouhaha over the redrawing the lines of the city’s eight districts, a councilmember is calling for a charter amendment that would create a student-dominated district. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who represents heavily student-populated District 7, put the item on the City Council’s agenda for tomorrow night because the city attorney deemed a student-proposed redistricting plan was inconsistent with the City Charter during the recent redistricting process. 

“If students really want to see this happen then at least they

Editor: 

Aware that I was in Cuba on Sept. 11, two well-educated professionals after my return separately asked me whether celebration there followed the attacks. Troubled by the question, I explained that the Cuban response I observed was profound shock at the magnitude of the disaster, followed by expressions of compassion for all victims. Condemnation of terrorism was explicit. 

Ironically, the government of Cuba offered medical supplies to the rescue operations, a gesture I assume not fully reported here. Many of us on the Global Exchange Reality Tour had brought medical supplies as donations, which Cuba itself chronically needs because of the U.S. embargo. 

Clearly, lack of information, as well as misinformation, shape American attitudes toward this small country of approximately 12 million people. Among many of its achievements, in the two largest cities, Santiago and La Havana, I witnessed neither homelessness nor begging, certainly a model for our country to emulate. 

Jack W. Fleming 

Berkeley

QB Murphy passes for two TDs, runs one in for Panthers 

After crunching out algebraic equations all morning Saturday, St. Mary’s running back Trestin George stepped on the football field in a Bay Shore Athletic League game and did the same to the John Swett defense. 

George was one of six St. Mary’s players, including all three team captains, who took the SAT on Saturday morning. 

“In the morning my concentration was on the test,” said George, who piled up 133 rushing yards and scored one touchdown to help his team to a 38-3 victory over John Swett in the BSAL season opener for both teams. “I had to get my work done but when I stepped out in the field it was all business.” 

“That’s what St. Mary’s teaches,” said linebacker Omarr Flood, who took the test and also had a standout defensive performance with one sack. “To be 100 percent both in the classroom and the football field. We came out and played four quarters of football and dominated. It’s traditional St. Mary’s football.” 

St. Mary’s scored on five of its first seven possessions while holding John Swett to a mere field goal. 

“We were worried about Trestin,” John Swett head coach John Angell said. “He’s a good runner. Every coach in the league will be worrying about him. We tried stopping the run and the pass got us.” 

Lawson said John Swett was stacking the line with nine defenders trying to stop George.  

“We threw early to take advantage of them stopping the run,” he said.  

On its first possession St. Mary’s scored when quarterback Steve Murphy connected with wide receiver Ryan Coogler on a 32-yard touchdown pass. The drive took just four plays. 

On its next possession St. Mary’s running game opened up another scoring opportunity. Again, it was Murphy throwing a 27-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Coogler. George had five runs for 51 yards on the drive. 

George said it was a mistake to focus solely on him. 

“They came into the game thinking all they had to do was stop me, but we have to many weapons,” he said. “If they focus on the run we beat them with the pass. If they focus on the pass with beat them with the run. (We’re) like the St. Louis Rams.” 

After Swett’s first two possessions resulted in punts, kicker Morgan Edwards kicked a 32-yard field goal for the team’s only score of the game. 

John Swett’s defense seemed to run out of gas in the second half as each of St. Mary’s scores came off very short drives. 

The first score came just four plays into the half. After faking a hand off to George, Murphy ran a quarterback keeper up the middle, broke five tackles and ran 41 yards for the touchdown. 

The second score consisted of just two plays. The score came when George ran wide to the left, broke one tackle and had a wide open 52 yard touchdown run. 

The third score in the second half came when Julian Taylor ran up the middle, broke one tackle and found himself in the open field for a 39-yard touchdown run. Wide receiver Courtney Brown caught the two point conversion to make it 38-3. 

The win raised the Panthers’ record to 2-4, while Swett fell to 1-5. 

“I told my players before the game that as far as we were concerned we were 0 and 0,” said Lawson, St. Mary’s head coach. “Our mission is to go 5 and 0 and go to the playoffs. This one is done. Now we’re getting ready for (next week’s oppenent) St. Patrick’s.” 

John Swett head coach John Angell said his team struggled because injuries are catching up on his team.  

“A lot of the kids were trying to play hurt,” he said. “With a small school there’s not much you can do when two or three starters go down.” 

Despite the loss, Angell was happy with his team’s performance. 

“St. Mary’s is one of the top teams in the league,” he said. “I feel we did pretty good. We’re in the process of rebuilding.” 

In an earlier game St. Mary’s junior varsity scored 22 points in the second half to beat John Swett 22-12.  

Before the celebration began, before Saturday’s heat began to oppress, an elder Native American man sat in the shade of his booth playing along on a set of pan pipes.  

The tune? “Dirty Old Town,” made famous by the Pogues in the 1980s, but now wafting over to the park courtesy of a Farmer’s Market chanteuse. 

The man was getting into the sprit of the Tenth Annual Indigenous Peoples Day Pow-Wow and Indian Market, held in Martin Luther King Civic Center

Editor: 

The first step in winning the war against terrorism seems to be the lynching of the usual suspect, Osama bin Laden. President Bush wants him captured “dead or alive.” The Taliban has asked to see what evidence there is that he is responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11 — a reasonable request when extradition is demanded. They are arrogantly told, “We don’t have to show you any stinking evidence.” Which probably means there isn’t any. 

The second step may be the launching of an unwinnable, Vietnam-type war on Afghanistan, which the Russians couldn’t conquer in ten years. Terrorism may be one of those social problems that cannot be solved by the simple use of extreme military means. Which makes it all the more important to wonder why nobody is asking some basic questions, like why do millions of people all over the world hate our guts? And what can we do about it? 

The answer lies in what the bean-counters tell us every year: the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. This applies to countries as well as individuals. This is the way capitalism, for which the U.S. is the loudest proponent and the principle beneficiary, really works. 

The poorest countries cannot raise their living standards because they live at subsistence levels and produce no surplus with which to invest in industrialization. The vast natural resources of the under-developed world are not used to help its inhabitants, but are siphoned off to further enrich the industrial nations. 

To begin to change this situation requires the elimination of the profit system and the re-organization of the entire world under the widest possible democracy and equality, in all lands, at all levels. To secure lasting peace, we must establish universal justice. The working people, not the generals or politicians, must take the lead in this. 

Meanwhile, stay out of airplanes, tall buildings, and busy bridges. 

Marion Syrek 

Oakland

CORVALLIS, Ore. - No. 12 California swept the opening weekend of Pac-10 play with a 2-0 shutout of Oregon State Sunday afternoon. With the Bears’ second shutout of the weekend, they improved to 10-2-1 overall. The Beavers fell to 7-4-1 and 0-2 in league play.  

“We’re very pleased with two shutouts on the weekend,” said Cal coach Kevin Boyd.” Oregon State is a good team and played tough. It was pretty even at the half. The second half we stepped up our play a little bit. Our center mids starting taking over and our forwards got a little more active and we created some nice chances. We are pleased to be 2-0 in the Pac-10 after the first weekend and feel like we played very well.”  

After a scoreless first half that saw Cal outshoot Oregon State, 5-4, the Bears quickly got on the scoreboard early in the second half. In the 47th minute, midfielder Brittany Kirk took a pass from Kim Yokers and scored what eventually was her second game-winning goal of the weekend.  

Forward Krysti Whalen added an insurance goal in the 57th minute for her first goal of the season. Kassie Doubrava sent a long through ball to Whalen, who beat the goalkeeper on a one-v-one opportunity.  

The Bears outshot the Beavers 13-9 overall. Cal goalkeeper Mallory Moser had to make two saves to secure her fourth shutout of the season. OSU’s keeper Gabby Nejedlo made one save.  

Cal returns home Friday to host Washington at 3 p.m., at Edwards Stadium.

The Berkeley Unified School District is shrinking the number of non-credentialed teachers in its classrooms, thanks partly to state programs that improve retention rates by enabling more on-the-job training. 

“It’s much better than it has been,” said Dr. David Gomez, the district’s associate superintendent for administrative services. “The area of difficulty remains the single-subject areas, especially math.” 

In the 1998-1999 school year, according to a state report, the Berkeley Unified School District had 43 teachers without credentials. This year, said Rosalind Sarah, the district’s director of new teacher programs, “we might have at a district level only 25 teachers who are not credentialed.”  

All the elementary school teachers have some form of credential this year, she said, whereas “half a dozen” lacked them last year. 

In addition, she said, about 130 of the district’s approximately 650 teachers are in second-tier training programs. 

Sarah attributed the improvement partly to school districts’

An open letter to President George W. Bush:  

I have heard you say we should get the terrorists “dead or alive.” I totally agree with that. But does the word terrorist not include those who have taken part in state terrorism, the ex-dictators and their generals who have committed crimes against humanity and have found a safe haven in this country? Does it not include Americans of past administrations, such as Henry Kissinger? Does it not include your generals and advisors who are knowingly killing innocent people in Afghanistan who are already suffering so much under the Taliban?  

Roger Van Ouytsel 

Berkeley

LOS ANGELES – The University of California women’s volleyball team lost to No. 3 ranked USC, 3-0 (30-25, 30-26, 30-19), Saturday night at the Lyon Center on USC’s campus.  

The Bears were led by freshman Mia Jerkov’s 13 kills, while junior Reena Pardiwala also had a strong night, recording nine kills, a team-high .615 hitting percentage (nine kills, one error, 13 attempts) and a team-high 11 digs.  

USC (12-1 overall, 7-0 Pac-10) was led by sophomore April Ross, last season’s Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, who had 13 kills. The Trojans are alone in first place in the Pac-10.  

“The way our team sustained our level of play and effort, I felt we won some battles tonight,” said head coach Rich Feller. “Overall, I think we had a good effort this weekend playing against two of the top teams in the nation in UCLA and USC.”

Adolfo Perez Esquivel, an Argentine who won the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize urged students and others who gathered to hear his lecture Wednesday afternoon at Stephens Hall in UC Berkeley to be active in seeking alternatives to war. 

“It’s hard to talk about peace when it seems the world is falling apart,” Esquivel said in Spanish with a translator working at his side. 

“Let’s be realists. We should demand the impossible. We have to make possible what seems impossible.” 

Esquivel, who was invited by the Center for Latin America Studies and others, was originally to give a global view of human rights but instead talked about the U.S. attacks against Afghanistan. 

Expressing his solidarity with the United States, Esquivel emphasized theneed to reflect on the causes of this conflict. 

On the same day as the attacks in New York and Washington DC , 35,650 children died of hunger and nutrition.  

“But with that action nobody got upset,” he said. “None of the countries had moved, the [United Nations] didn’t set a resolution, the Pope didn’t say anything. What’s happening in our society, what happening to us human being?” 

Following his own tradition, Esquivel joined other Latin American’s Nobel Laureates earlier this week at a session of meetings with UN officials, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the president of the UN assembly Dr. Han Seung-Soo in New York. 

“I woke up in the middle of the night from the sound of helicopters and I was wondering whether I was in Latin America or New York,” he said, referring to the new security measures in New York. 

Esquivel, a sculptor and painter by profession, devoted his life to promoting human rights, peace and justice. The 70-year-old activist became active in Latin America nonviolence movements in the 60s as a member of Christian non-violence movement. In 1974 he founded an ecumenical human rights organization called the Service for Peace and Justice. 

When the Argentine military began a policy of systematic repression in the 1970s Esquivel supported the families of victims and contributed to the formation and strengthening of ties between popular human rights organizations. 

Esquivel paid a high price for his actions. He was detained twice, first by the Brazilian military police and again in 1976 in Ecuador. In 1977, Esquivel was held and tortured at the Buenos Aires Federal police headquarters for 14 months. 

The Nobel Laureates in New York urged UN officials to strengthen the role of the UN in the recent conflict. ”In the work that has been done for the last 50 years, important mechanisms were founded which can be implement also over super powers like the US,” he said. 

The Nobel winners also asked UN officials to call a special session of the general assembly on terrorism. 

“What we need to find is the different kinds of terrorism,” he said. “In Latin America we suffered military dictatorships, wasn’t it terror? But there are other forms of terrorism — market terrorism, economic terrorism. Those 35,650 children who died, what kind of terror are they are victims of? When we look on the silence terrorism of poverty, we have to understand it’s also terrorism.” 

“The U.S. government needs to change its policies to the rest of the world, to other countries,” he said. “Now bin Laden who use to be an ally is enemy number one. He was prepared and trained (by the U.S.) to fight the Soviets. Saddam Hussein was also prepared and trained and equipped to war against Iran, Now number two enemy who used to be number one but was lowered. Noriega in Panama, another creation of the CIA, once the U.S. changed its opinion about him, it started to bomb Panama.” 

According to Esquivel, more than 80,000 Latin American military officers were trained in US camps in Latin America or in the United States. Many later become part of repressive military regimes. 

“Latin America is remilitarizing,” he said, “The US put new bases almost in every country around Latin America. What are they are there for? To protect the interests of the people? No. They are there to protect he economic interests of the States.” 

When asked for proposals for action, Esquivel focused on the need of information.  

“Be sure you have good information, accurate information and spread that around,” he said. “You can join other universities and communities to see how you can join actions. The notion that the war is unavoidable is out there and it doesn’t leave any space to other ideas.”

Editor: 

I would like to congratulate all of the Berkeley students who came here seeking activism. Now you have a cause to fight for. You don’t need to apply the critical thinking you are taught in the classroom. Just follow the leader. What the heck, it's Berkeley. This is what you came here expecting. And you got it. Beware of thinking. It ruins the fun. 

Sura Rahman 

Berkeley

SAN LUIS OBISPO – The California men’s cross country team finished second at the Cal Poly Invitational with 93 points. Host Cal Poly won the competition with 48 points.  

On the women’s side, the Bears placed seventh with 175 points, while Cal Poly won with 43 points.  

Cal Poly’s David Jackson won the men’s race in 26:14.6. Corey Creasey led the way for the Cal men, finishing seventh in 27:08.3. Carlos Carballo was the Bears next fastest runner, clocking in at 27:45.9 in 14th place.  

Kareen Nilsson, an unattached runner, won the women’s race in 17:39.4. Leading the way for the Bear women was Erin Belger, finishing 23rd in 19:41.4.

OAKLAND – A BART strike starting Tuesday is very possible, according to an official with one of three unions representing BART employees who says it’s likely that workers will vote to turn down BART’s “best and final offer’’ Monday after months of contract negotiations. 

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993 will vote on the issue tomorrow in Oakland, and AFSCME President Norma del Mercado said she is recommending the contract be turned down. 

“I’m recommending a no vote,’’ del Mercado said last week, explaining that although the latest offer by BART calls for a 22 percent pay raise, the issue is not about money. 

“We have no argument against the wage and benefits package. It’s that our main issues were never addressed,’’ she said. “Our number one issue is the basic right to protect our jobs and (BART) has never addressed that.’’ 

The union alleges its members are passed over for promotions that go to consultants and contractors. A court-ordered cooling-off period that bars the union representing some-230 employees to strike expires at midnight tomorrow. BART issued its final offer to the union last Thursday. 

BART’s two larger unions, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and Service Employees International Union Local 790, approved their contracts last month. The two unions representing some-2,600 employees say they will honor AFSCME’s decision and strike as well if the 230-member union rejects the offer.

About 150 people attended a workshop Thursday intended to gather community input on two development plans for the Eastshore State Park, an eight and a half mile piece of land that stretches from the Richmond Bay Marina to the Bay Bridge.  

One includes more preservation and the other stresses development of the land’s recreational facilities. Both plans were developed by Wallace Roberts & Todd, the planning firm hired by the East Bay Regional District. 

Ned MacKay, public information supervisor for the East Bay Regional Park District, said the 1,800 acres of shoreline was bought in 1998 from the Catellus Corporation to preserve it for public use. The planning process, which began in January 2001, is headed by the East Bay Regional Park District, California State Parks and the California State Coastal Conservancy. 

Stephen Hammond, Director of Planning for Wallace Roberts & Todd, said plan A involves removal of exotic plant species, improving creeks into the bay and wetland preservation. The plan includes passive recreational use, such as hiking, bird watching and kayaking.  

Hammond said Plan B includes development for facilities such as boat launches, turf areas for sports, restrooms, parking, picnic areas, concession stands, equipment storage and paved roads. 

Paul Kamen, chair of the Berkeley Waterfront Commission said he strongly prefers plan B because it allows for active recreational use. 

“My biggest fear is that we will have a water front park that ignores the opportunities offered by the water,” he said, referring to kayaking and entry-level rowing for casual visitors. “My goal is that every afternoon during the summer kids will be able to ride their bicycles to the waterfront and get involved in dragon boat racing.” 

In a letter to the Daily Planet published Sept. 11, Kamen said “…the most valuable open space in this park is the water, not the land. ... There is a sublime satisfaction in simply floating on water and directing one’s own course.” 

Sarah Wagner Ginskey, a 32-year-old artist who lives in Berkeley, said she wants to encourage people to pick the plan with the less intense recreational use. 

Ginskey said she hikes every day. Most of her paintings are inspired by California’s native landscape and wildlife, she said. Before the meeting she passed out literature on wildlife conservation. The handout included some of her art work, including a picture of a Burrowing Owl. 

“Nearly 90 percent of our Bay’s wetland and wildlife areas have been lost,” she said citing Save The Bay, an environmental group. “There is so little habitat left in the Bay Area. People should think in the long term. In the last 200 years we have drastically changed this region.” 

Osha Neumann, a 62-year-old lawyer and mural painter who lives in North Oakland said neither plan works for him.  

“Leave it alone,” he said referring to the parkland. “It’s the last piece of wilderness on the bay. When you destroy wilderness you destroy a non-renewable source.” 

Despite their input, residents were told by planning manager, Donald Neuwirth, that public comment would be one of several factors in the final outcome of the general plan for the state park. 

“Community involvement in the planning process is very important,” said Donald Neuwirth, planning manager. “[However] people should not feel this is a head count or an issue of names signed on a petition but rather there’s laws, regulations and financial considerations.” 

The Eastshore State Park is part of the state park system and must adhere to its policies, procedures and overall mission, said Larry Trong, a member of the planning team.  

“We also have to consider state law as mandated by the California Public Resources Code,” he said. 

Under Section 5003.03 (h) of the code, the park shall be “…a recreational facility harmonious with its natural setting.” 

Curt Gray, a trade show installer in his 40s, said he did not know how much of an impact the community will have in the general plan of the park. 

“I have participated in many public forums,” he said. “Some of which community input had an effect on the end result and others that did not.” 

Mark Irwin, a mechanical engineer who lives in Oakland said the planning team is trying to incorporate as much public sentiment as possible. He said, “The fact that they are having this forum is a plus.” 

Irwin said he spends 50 percent of his recreational time sailing and wind surfing in the state park. However he does not like either of the two plans. 

“They’re both about development,” Irwin said. “I rather leave it the way it is.”  

The next regional workshop is scheduled for February 2002. Community members with comments or questions can contact the Eastshore State Park information line at (888) 988-PARK or visit www.eastshorestatepark.org. 

Shell Mound, UC Berkeley buildings among subjects 

Berkeley Landmarks is a surprisingly intriguing book. Not bad for 300 pages documenting almost every building and site of historic, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance in a 16 square-mile perimeter. 

These landmarks were selected by a Landmark Preservation Commission, created in 1974, which has by now identified 237 buildings or sites as city of Berkeley Landmarks or Structures of Merit. These landmarks include City Hall, subdivisions, pathways between streets, buildings on university grounds named for wealthy donors, glades and large rock outcroppings.  

Few areas representative of Berkeley’s unique political identity are described, but the book’s text still contains fascinating history. 

The area we call Berkeley was originally home to the Ohlone People, c. 3700 BC to 800 AD, who settled at the foot of the freshwater creek now known as Strawberry Creek. The riverbanks were lined with willows and outlying areas were rich in deer, seals, otters, fish, birds and shellfish. 

The remains of the Berkeley Shell Mound, which contained large quantities of artifacts such as bone tools and the remains of a sweat house, are today located approximately between University and Hearst avenues, and Fourth and Second streets. 

The town of Berkeley was incorporated in 1878. The town was named in honor of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, Ireland, who came to America early in the eighteenth century with the goal of establishing colleges. 

Berkeley Landmarks contains numerous maps and 19th century photos which document the above-mentioned history and more. University Avenue once had horse-drawn streetcar service, which led to a ferry to San Francisco. In the early 1900s there was an electric trolley line on San Pablo Avenue. West Berkeley was once a major industrial area and home to the Standard Soap Company, now known as the Colgate/Palmolive /Peet Company. Berkeley beach was located at the foot of Cedar Street. 

Remarkable architects such as Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, Charles Keeler and many dozens of others helped transform Berkeley’s early Bay Region architecture, making it an icon of the building-with-nature philosophy epitomized by the Hillside Club. 

Many of these architects and designers were originally attracted to Berkeley by the University of California at Berkeley, which offered the first classes in architecture west of the Mississippi. Berkeley Landmarks contains a section listing biographical info on local builders, designers, and architects. 

But Berkeley Landmarks primarily describes the design and ownership histories of many distinctive Berkeley Colonial Revival style houses, Redwood frame cottages, stucco bungalows, Italianate Victorians, Pioneer Victorians, Craftsman Bungalows and more. 

You can also learn the design and ownership history of gathering places such as Ashkenaz (modeled after old Polish synagogues), Toverii Tuppa (which means “Friends Meeting Hall” in Finnish), Bowen’s Inn (which is said to be the oldest surviving structure in Berkeley), the Claremont Hotel (built to provide a destination for riders of the new electric rail lines), and the West Berkeley Macaroni Factory. 

The design history of less glamorous structures are included as well. Many one-story bungalows were originally tract houses built for the sudden influx of World War II workers.  

Today, few Berkeley residents design their own homes. At least we can read about those who could design and put together their own homes, such as Joseph Alphonso, a Portuguese cabinetmaker who constructed his own home on Delaware Street, and James L. Swink who put up the elegant Colonial Revival Swink House on Shattuck Avenue, which is still proudly standing two doors down from Chez Panisse. 

LOS ANGELES – The economic impact of the terrorist attacks is beginning to take a toll in California, which had held steady before Sept. 11 amid a national downturn in consumer and business spending. 

Earlier this year, strong tourism and business travel had offset troubles in the technology and international trade sectors. But tourism has plummeted in the past month, leaving thousands of hotel, restaurant and airlines workers without jobs or working reduced hours. 

Those job losses won’t be seen in official government statistics until November, but economists say California’s economy will almost certainly enter a mild recession in the final quarter of 2001 and may not recover until at least the middle of 2002. 

“There is no question that our economy is now experiencing the full impact of the national economic slowdown,” Gov. Gray Davis said Thursday while ordering state agency heads to prepare to cut their budgets by 15 percent in the next fiscal year. 

Another indicator of the slumping California economy came when new unemployment numbers were released Friday showing a slight increase to 5.4 percent in September. The figure reflected a 0.5 percent jump from September 2000. The jobless rate for August was 5.3 percent 

Those figures, however, were based on surveys conducted on or before Sept. 11 and do not reflect dramatic job cuts in the tourism industry that have been so severe that Standard & Poor’s recently placed Anaheim’s bonds on “credit watch.” Anaheim is the West Coast’s largest convention city. 

With such a huge economy, California would rank as the fifth largest in the world if it stood alone. Thus, the fear is that a recession here would shake the national economy. 

“Two large sectors of the national economy slowing down – California and New York – will definitely have an impact on the United States,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. 

The high-tech Silicon Valley area has suffered sharp job losses and drops in home values all year and will likely feel even greater pain in the coming months. Unemployment there reached 5.9 percent in September – a huge rise from the 1.3 percent last December. 

But the latest worry is tourism. 

From San Francisco’s Pier 39 to hotels in posh Beverly Hills, hundred of housekeepers, cooks and other low-wage workers have lost their jobs or seen their hours cut severely as tourists stay away and airlines cut flights. 

San Francisco’s city budget may come up $100 million short by the end of the fiscal year due, in part, to reduced tourism and the resulting decrease in hotel bed taxes and just about every tax that fuels the city’s $5.2 billion annual budget. 

In Anaheim, at least seven conventions that were expected to draw a total of 35,000 people were canceled in the days after the attacks. Economic losses were estimated at about $12 million. 

Hotels across California have seen some of the lowest occupancy rates in a decade and have moved quickly to lay off workers. About 25 percent of hotel union members in the state have been laid off and another 15 percent have had hours reduced, union officials said. 

In Santa Monica, nearly 200 people showed up this week at a relief center opened by the union representing hotel and restaurant workers. Volunteers helped workers apply for unemployment benefits and food stamps and distributed bags of groceries. 

Rhina Gonzalez and her husband, Cesar Perez, both lost their jobs as housekeepers in area hotels after Sept. 11. The two have four young children. 

“This is very scary for me,” she said. “I have to bring Christmas to my kids. I have to buy presents. I have to give them a nice Christmas, the same as other years, and I can’t.” 

Some economists predict the economic impact of the Sept. 11 attacks, while sharp, will be temporary. 

California still has about 200,000 more jobs today than it did at the same time last year and some jobs are expected to be created as the result of increased defense spending, said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, a Palo Alto research firm. 

Levy said that even if the state should lose 300,000 jobs – far more than even the most dire estimate to date – that would only result in an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent. 

While far higher than the all-time low unemployment rate of 4.5 percent reached earlier this year, it would be far less than the 9.7 percent in the early 1990s when the state lost more than 500,000 jobs in the last recession, Levy said.

SAN JOSE – Eighty passengers and five crew members were held aboard a United Airlines jet for three hours after a man reportedly stood up in mid-flight and spilled a substance that later turned out to be confetti from a greeting card. 

Police, FBI and emergency crews met the plane at about 2:30 p.m. Saturday and set up a decontamination tent for the passengers of United Airlines Flight 1669 from Chicago. Passengers who noticed the envelopes contents apparently became alarmed, fearing it could have been a toxic agent, according to. 

“The substance being found in the airplane appears to be nothing more than confetti that spilled out of a greeting card,” said FBI spokesman Andrew Black. “Now we have an airplane on the runway with 80 plus passengers who are not very happy right now.” 

The man’s identity and nationality were not released, but Black said he is a longtime San Francisco Bay area resident. 

Someone aboard the plane told a crew member the man had dispersed the powder into the air vent system, setting emergency crews in motion in San Jose where the plane was destined. Once the plane arrived, fire department personnel took air samples from inside the United Airlines Airbus 319 craft to determine if any toxic agents were present, said San Jose Police Department Rubens Dalaison. 

They also played it extra safe with the man who spilled the confetti. Fire department personnel boarded the plane, took the man off, stripped him of his clothing, washed him down with detergent and dressed him in a hazardous materials suit that prevents vapors from passing out of it. 

San Jose Fire Department battalion chief Kevin Conant said his department has been busy responding to numerous calls of mysterious powders. 

“We’ve investigated everything from beach sand to baking powder to confetti,” Conant said. “We’re taking all these incidents seriously. We’ll send all the resources required and investigate it as a credible threat.” 

The man who spilled the confetti and the witness who noticed it and reported it to the plane’s crew were questioned by police. Some passengers said Americans are getting a little too jumpy when it comes to anthrax scares. 

“I think people are paranoid. I think false calls are being made,” said Angela Johnson, one of the passengers who sat for hours aboard Flight 1669. 

The incident came as anthrax scares spread throughout the United States. In Boca Raton, Fla., five more tabloid employees at the American Media Inc. building tested positive for exposure to anthrax, a company spokesman announced Saturday. 

At Washington’s Dulles International Airport, a spokeswoman said a powdery substance found in a restroom on a United Airlines plane from London was being tested at an Army laboratory in Maryland. 

Spokeswoman Tara Hamilton said the flight was met Saturday by a hazardous materials team and FBI agents, who determined that 17 people out of 216 passengers and 14 crew members had used the bathroom. 

The 17 passengers were detained and preliminary decontamination steps were taken on them, which Hamilton said consisted for most part of washing their hands.

OAKLAND – Mothers and pastors led about 600 concerned community members on a procession to end violence in East Oakland. 

The marchers stood at the intersection of 71st Avenue and Hamilton Street. Police say seven people have been killed in this part of Oakland over the years. 

The procession followed a coffin Friday night that was carried by young men. They carried it to show that all young men in the area aren’t involved in drugs, they said. 

Residents said the area is the marketplace for many drug dealers who come from other neighborhoods.

HAYWARD – Federal Aviation Administration rules restricting flights near the Golden Gate Bridge have grounded some who scatter the ashes of people’s loved ones. 

Mother and son, Kathy and Darrin Silver, who run Ash Scattering by Air in Hayward, haven’t flown since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

The business’ Cessnas are parked at the Hayward airport, which means they can’t take off at all. 

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the Bay Area’s most popular aerial scattering sites. The FAA has not said when it will clear certificated pilots to fly in air spaces surrounding major metropolitan areas. 

In the meantime, the Silvers are storing the ashes in a locked safe at the Hayward Executive Airport. 

REDWOOD CITY – Redwood City’s waterfront is one of the last large parcels in town, and developers are eyeing it. 

Several developers want to build more than 2,000 housing units and 3 million square feet of office space. 

But environmentalists worry that developing the roughly 150 acres of bayfront property could harm some of the San Francisco Bay’s remaining wetlands. The marshlands are a source of food for migratory birds and micro-organisms that are food for other plants and animals. 

No formal proposals have been submitted to the city yet. In the next few months, consultants are expected to return to the city with development proposals.

A Berkeley woman, a member of Women in Black, contacted by the FBI in connection to the Sept. 11 attacks, compared looking to her organization for clues to the attackers, with looking for alligators in Montana. 

Kate Raphael tells the story this way: “I got home from work on Monday, Sept. 24 and there was a message on my voicemail from the San Francisco office of the FBI. They wanted to ask me questions, they wanted me to call them back. I didn’t want to do that.” 

An active member of Women in Black, Raphael describes the organization as an international network of mostly Jewish, mostly lesbian “feminist, anti-racist, anti-militarist” women who oppose the occupation of Palestine and the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.  

“We are opposed to all forms of war and extreme nationalism,” Raphael said. When they are demonstrating, members of the group wear black and stand in public places. 

Instead of returning the call, Raphael contacted National Lawyers Guild attorney Rachel Lederman who called back in her place. Lederman learned that Raphael was contacted because of her involvement with Women in Black. The bureau wanted to talk to her about the Sept. 11 attacks and find out who she might know in the Middle East. 

Raphael says the call mystified her. “It’s very puzzling to me and more puzzling as time goes on. I thought it was the beginning of a wave of calls.” But no other Women in Black activists have been contacted, to her knowledge. “That makes it more confusing to me,” she said. 

And she wonders why the FBI thinks her organization would be able to provide insight to Sept. 11.  

“If the FBI really believes that the Women in Black, a mostly Jewish feminist lesbian (group) would know about fundamentalist men in the Middle East,” that would be surprising, she said. “It’s like an alligator hunter going to Montana. It’s his job to know there are not alligators in Montana. It speaks really badly about (the FBI’s) ability to do their jobs. Women in Black are about as far away as you’re going to get. I ask myself, why me?” 

Raphael’s attorney said the FBI made a critical mistake. After Raphael was contacted and the message left on her answering machine and Lederman contacted the bureau informing them that she was Raphael’s attorney, the FBI should not have called Raphael back. They should have dealt solely with her, Lederman said. But they did call Raphael again, saying she would be subject to being subpoenaed by the Grand Jury in New York that is investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Raphael says she thinks the Grand Jury has better things to do than to actually subpoena her. If they do, Lederman said they’ll go to federal court to have the subpoena quashed. “In general, no one is obliged to answer questions from the FBI unless ordered by the court,” Lederman said, adding that, if people are contacted by the FBI, they should talk to the National Lawyer’s Guild at 415-285-1055 to get help.  

“I’m not going to be intimidated,” Raphael said. 

On Oct. 17, 7-9 p.m., the Middle East Children’s Alliance is holding a forum called, “Know your rights,” geared to those people who may be called by the FBI. The forum will be held at St. Joseph the Worker’s Church at 1640 Addison St. 

Saturday, Oct. 13

Shelter Operations 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar St. 

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Neighborhood Parents  

Network 

10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

College Avenue Presbyterian Church 

5951 College Ave. 

North Oakland and Berkeley Area Preschool Panel Discussion and Fair. School representatives will discuss the differing philosophical and theoretical thoughts of varying preschool models. $10, $5 for NPN members. 527-6667 www.parentsnet.org 

Optimal Fertility with Acupuncture and  

Herbal Medicine 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave.  

This workshop will explore how Chinese medicine works to improve fertility, and how acupuncture, herbs and nutrition can be combined with Western fertility treatments, including IVF. $25, advance registration required. 595-1175 

Farmers’ Market Fall Fruit  

Tasting 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center St and Martin Luther King Way 

Free samples the whole range of fall fruit. There will be a wide variety of apples, pears and persimmons at a central location for taste-testing. 548-3333 

Pow Wow and Indian Market 

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Enjoy Native American foods, dancing and arts & crafts in Berkeley’s tenth annual Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration, this year honoring Mille Ketchesawno. 

595-5520 

Optics Fair 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Explore the world of the unseen at the first-ever LHS Optics Fair featuring a variety of microscopes, binoculars, and hand lenses to try out and compare. Parents, teachers and children age 6 and up. 642-5132 

Sunday, Oct. 14

Donna Lerew’s 70th  

Birthday Concert 

8 p.m. 

Unitarian Universalist Church  

One Lawson Rd., Kensington 

The distinguished Bay Area violinist celebrates her 70th birthday with a retrospective concert featuring Musica Viva String Quartet and Rose Trio. $10. Free parking. 525-0302 

Judaism and Christianity: Facing the Facts 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Explore the history of the Jewish-Christian experience with Rabbi Shelly Waldenberg, teacher of Jewish Studies at Holy Names College and local Catholic High Schools. $10 public, $5 members. 548-0237 

Monday, Oct. 15

Rite of Christian Initiation  

for Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask. 526-4811 

Emergency Preparedness  

Workshop 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Anna Swardenski speaks to help seniors and people with disabilities be more prepared in case of an emergency. 

Franciscanism, Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Interfaith Couples Look  

at Love and Choices 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Two films to stimulate discussion about interfaith families, love and identity. $25 per couple. 548-0237 

Tuesday, Oct. 16

Crabby Chef Competition 

4 p.m. 

Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto 

1919 Fourth St.  

Top East Bay chefs compete to create the best crab dish. Free.  

5 - 7 p.m. Fund-raising Reception for the Visual and Performing Arts Group of Berkeley High School. $25 donation. 845-7777 

Similarities between Jewish  

and Deadhead Spirituality 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

It’s been observed that a disproportionate number of deadheads are Jews. Dr. Leora Lawton, researcher of deadhead culture, explores the fascinating parallels between Jewish and deadhead rituals. $25 public, $15 members. 548-0237 

The Berkeley Garden Club 

2:15 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

“Yearlong Garden Color with Bulbs” with Retired Director, Regional Botanic Gardens, Wayne Roderick. The program includes slides of flowering bulbs ideally suited to the East Bay climate. 524-4374 bgardenclub@aol.com 

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium - Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight way 

“Herbal Alternatives and Drug Interactions for Fibromyalgia.” 601-0550 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Israel and Palestine:  

Why the Oslo Peace Process Failed 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Speaker Joel Beinin is a Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University: “The Oslo Declaration of Principles... was supposed to bring peace and stability to the Middle East... the entire region is more unstable than a decade ago. Why have the hopes of so many people for a just peace been disappointed?” He will also address the relationship between U. S. policy, the Arab-Israel conflict, and events of this kind. 863-6637 

Wednesday, Oct. 17

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

Golden Age Party 

1:30 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Party for the over 90 club and any who wish to attend. Swing Notes, a women’s acappela group will entertain and there will be refreshments. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov 28 

Conversation: Rosemary Radford Reuther and Carolyn Merchant 

5:30 - 8 p.m. 

#1 LeConte Building, UC Berkeley 

“Women, Religion, Science, and the Environment.” 649-2490 

hursday, Oct. 18

Berkeley Metaphysical Toastmasters Club  

6:15 - 7:30 p.m.  

2515 Hillegass Ave.  

Public speaking skills and metaphysics come together. Ongoing first and third Thursdays each month. 869-2547 

Friday, Oct. 19

Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union 

Grand Opening Celebration 

4 - 7 p.m. 

2001 Ashby Ave. 

A family affair with food, entertainment and a special treat for the kids. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Honorary Chairperson is scheduled to attend. Faith Fancher is the Mistress of Ceremonies. 415-346-0199 

YAP’s FNL Teen Club: “Pop Ya Colla! Dance” 

7 -11 p.m. 

1730 Oregon St. 

Young Adult Project presents dance for 13 to 18 year olds only. Must have B.U.S.D. I.D. “No haters, no problems.” 644-6226 

Saturday, Oct. 20

Earthquake Retrofitting 

10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Office of Emergency Services 

812 Page St.  

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

BART Job Fair 

9 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

BART will be recruiting to fill approximately 160 jobs that wukk be opening up next year. The jobs to be filled are in accounting, planing, engineering, insurance, purchasing, police, maintenance and electronics. 

Sunday, Oct. 21

West Berkeley Market 

11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

University Ave., between 3rd and 4th Streets  

Family-oriented weekly market. Crafts, music, produce, and specialty foods. 

654-6346 

Halloween Magic 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond JCC Auditorium 

1414 Walnut St.  

Los Angeles Magician and Comedian “Hotei the Magic Guy.” For kids 2 through 12 and their parents. $7. 236-7469 www.thebuddyclub.com 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Fall House Tour 

1 - 5 p.m. 

St. Clement’s Episcopal Church 

Claremont Blvd. & Russell St.  

This year’s tour “Around the Claremont Hotel” features ten houses in the historic neighborhood of residences and gardens that surround the landscaped park of the hotel. There will be a reception at one of the houses. $30. 845-8507 

Monday, Oct 22

Franciscanism, Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Interfaith Couples Look at Love and Choices 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Two films to stimulate discussion about interfaith families, love and identity. $25 per couple. 548-0237 

Tuesday, Oct. 23

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Similarities between Jewish and Deadhead Spirituality 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

It’s been observed that a disproportionate number of deadheads are Jews. Dr. Leora Lawton, researcher of deadhead culture, explores the fascinating parallels between Jewish and deadhead rituals. $25 public, $15 members. 548-0237 

Wednesday, Oct. 24

The meetings of the Police Review Commission scheduled for Sep 26 Oct 10 have been canceled. A special PRC meeting will be held Oct 3 at South Berkeley Senior Center. Regular PRC meetings will resume on Oct. 24 

Free Legal Workshop 

7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center 

3023 Shattuck Ave 

This workshop will provide information about State and Federal disability programs that provide cash benefits and health insurance for people unable to work due to a serious health condition. 

Toddler Storytime 

7 p.m. 

West Berkeley Library 

1125 University Ave 

For families with children three years or younger, a program to expose the youngest readers to multicultural stories, songs and finger plays. 

Every Wednesday through Nov 28 

Prose Writers’ Workshop 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley/Richmond Jewish Community Center Library 

1414 Walnut St.  

From Op-ed to fiction, memoir to the feature article - a community 

writers' group to support and encourage a community of interests. Workshop format. Free. 524-3034 

The name Claremont did not originate with the development of the hotel or the early subdivisions, but appears on an 1888 map with its present name. In an Oakland Times article from July 20, 1882, the area is already referred to as Claremont: “Here is a beautiful spot lying east of Telegraph Avenue beyond Temescal called Claremont.... (The) elegant homes in this pleasant retreat are standing in the center of flower beds surrounded by shade trees.” 

Claremont Avenue was originally a section of Telegraph Road.  

In 1858 the first intercontinental telegraph cable line was brought over the hills from Oakland along this route because Claremont Canyon was the lowest pass in the central Contra Costa Hills.  

Although the route was steep it also became the main highway to Martinez where it met the ferry boats to Benicia.  

It remained the main route over the hills until the first tunnel was opened in 1903, directly above the present Caldecott Tunnel. Farms, ranches, and later, country estates, were eventually established along this road.  

Expansion of electric streetcar service made the development of the hillside areas possible. Beginning around 1892 Francis Marion “Borax” Smith, and Frank Havens, a San Francisco attorney, began buying independent transit rail lines in the East Bay.  

Through their purchases they created the Oakland Transit Consolidated, which became known as the Key Route System.  

The trains and ferries he had consolidated and expanded into the Key System continued to run until 1958. The construction of the Claremont Hotel began in 1906 as part of the plan to provide a destination, and therefore passengers, for the new electric rail lines.  

The hotel did not open until 1915 for reasons that are not clear, but include a financial downturn in 1907 resulting from the 1906 Earthquake and Fire.  

Claremont Park was opened in 1905 and the opening of Claremont Court was announced in 1906.  

Credit is given to Duncan McDuffie for choosing far sighted designers for the layout of these residential subdivisions. Undoubtedly McDuffie was inspired by Frederick Law Olmsted that roads should express the natural contours of the land, and creeks should remain open and natural with native trees and vegetation preserved.  

Susan Cerny writes Berkeley Observed in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.  

On October 21, the Association will sponsor a house tour of homes around the Claremont Hotel. For further information please call 841-2242 or 841-1055.

We killed 4 U.N. land mine workers in our night raids. We bombed them. They were staying in a building they had rented. It used to be a communications center. 

We can aim bombs to land within 30 feet of their target. With global positioning instruments we can send the bombs with the precise coordinates for longitude and latitude. We’ve spent the past four weeks gathering “intelligence.” Before we dropped the bombs, you might think we’d call the U.N. and say “Where are your people?” Or the U.N. might have called the Pentagon and said “Our people are here and here and here.” Intelligence. Actionable intelligence. 

Were our maps out of date? We didn’t know the U.N. had moved into the communications center? You might think after we had bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade we might make sure the maps were up to date. Intelligence. Actionable intelligence. 

You might think we might learn from experience. But all our experience of war suggests we don’t. My Lai. No Gun Ri. Hiroshima. Bataan. Stalingrad. Trench warfare. Wounded Knee. Fredericksburg. Antietem. Napoleon at Moscow. That in itself could be actionable intelligence. We’d learn that war and intelligence never go together. The whole thing is an oxymoron. 

Two months before Sept. 11 Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced a bill (H.R. 2459) to establish a Department of Peace. Apparently it hasn’t passed yet. Let’s sign on as cosponsors. 

Land mines. People have been starving in Afghanistan for the past ten years because all the arable fields have been mined. Ten to 12 people a day were being injured or killed by land mines even before we started bombing the people who were trying to clear the minefields. Intelligence. 

Land mines. We are one of the countries that haven’t signed the land mine treaty. Our land mine manufacturers might get mad. No more campaign contributions from them. Actionable intelligence. 

Why aren’t landmines biodegradable? Why don’t they obsolesce so they can’t keep killing and crippling children year after year? Actionable intelligence. 

Bumper sticker with a picture of the earth and the caption: “Immediate Family.” We can call the Pentagon and say “Our people are here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here.” That’s actionable intelligence.  

Lee Helena Lawrence, former faculty member at Harvard University, is a psychologist living in Moraga 

Last Sunday the Crowden School presented the second of its chamber music concert series called “Sundays at Four.”  

The concert featured the world-famous cello master Laszlo Varga, who was principal cellist for the New York Philharmonic and has a distinguished career as recording artist, teacher and soloist. 

He was joined by Roy Malan, concertmaster for the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra; Benjamin Simon, director of the Crowden School and violist in several orchestras and quartets; and Karen Rosenak, a pianist with deep roots in many local ensembles and universities.  

In short, this was an all-star line-up, perhaps a surprise for such a seemingly humble venue.  

This concert was likely the best bargain of Berkeley’s classical music season in terms of quality chamber music for a modest admission ticket.  

These masters made us realize why the classics are so highly valued.  

They began with a gorgeous reading of Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in Eb Major, Opus 16.  

Lacking a true slow movement, this work focuses on the elegant charms of the tempo “Allegro, ma non troppo.” Without resorting to the easy but cheap affectation of romanticizing the classics, the string players took turns with the graceful themes and showed us a delightful series of developments and variations.  

Then Varga played a pair of cello sonatas with piano accompaniment, one by Brahms and one by Debussy.  

His rich sonority would have been a treat no matter what he played, but this program nicely highlighted the wonderful quality of his sound. The Brahms sonata was like a trio of lovely alto arias, while the Debussy piece excitedly explored many moods and techniques, all of which were firmly anchored by the luscious tone.  

Without a doubt, the excellent acoustics and relative intimacy of the Crowden School’s auditorium contributed substantially to the overall satisfaction of the concert: after all, chamber music was not written for the concert hall.  

Next month’s concert (November 5) features a return of Sunday’s featured violist, Benjamin Simon, whose program will range from the sublime J.S. Bach to the ridiculous P.D.Q. Bach.  

Simon promises to present “the viola as you’ve never heard it before!” The concert on Dec. 9 will be a showcase for some of the Bay Area’s best young musicians. On Feb. 3 of next year the Pacific Piano Quartet will take the stage to present Faure and Brahms.  

On March 17 Joan Jeanrenaud, founding cellist of the Kronos quartet “plays some crazy modern stuff” according to the program notes. 

The Crowden School Faculty Showcase will be on May 5. The series will finish with the Francesco Trio on June 2. Mark your calendars so you don’t forget these top-notch chamber music concerts.  

All proceeds from ticket sales go to the Crowden School’s scholarship fund.

924 Gilman Street Oct 13: Dead and Gone, Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Wormwood, Antagony; Most shows are $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Ashkenaz Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 14: Open Stage; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Blakes Oct. 13: Ten Ton Chicken, Blue Tulip, $5; Oct. 14: Ted Ekman Solo & Band, $5; Oct. 15: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 16: Black Dog Band featuring Peanut McDaniels, $4; Oct. 17: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 18: Ascension, $5; Oct. 19: King Harvest, Sfunk, $5; Oct. 20: Psychokinetics, $5; Oct. 22: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 23: Felice, $3; Oct. 24: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 25: Psychotica, $5; Oct. 26: Planting Seeds, $6; Oct. 27: Felonious, $6; Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Through Oct. 14: Fri. and Sat., 8:00 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Ballet Nacional De Cuba, $24 - $46; Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Jupiter Oct. 13: J Dogs; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

Live Oak Concerts Oct. 14: A Harvest of Song, an evening of premiers of works, $8-10. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Synchronicity Oct. 14: 2 p.m. Piano and percussion duo fuses classical and jazz music into a visual experience. $10 adult, $5 child. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Faye Sings Lady Day” Oct. 13: 8 p.m. & 10 p.m., Benefit concert for the Black Repertory Group in Berkeley. $10 - $15. Black Repertory Group, 3201 Adeline St. 849-9940  

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Through Oct. 19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Loaded Visions” Oct. 17: 8 p.m. Experimental short films by Antero Alli (Eight Videopoems and “Lilly in Limbo,” plus live music from Sylvi Alli). $5 - $10 sliding scale. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 464-4640 www.verticalpool.com 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 13: 3:30 p.m., Films of Fritz Lang: Discussions with Anton Kaes; 7 p.m., The Nibelungen: Siegfried’s Death; Oct. 14: 3:30 p.m., L’Atalante; 5:30 p.m., The Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge; Oct. 15: 7 p.m., Genesis; Oct. 16: 7:30 p.m., La Région centrale; Oct. 17: 7:30 p.m., Video in the Villages and Amazonian Trilogy; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” through Oct. 13; Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Asian Pacific Islander American artists in roughly the demographic proportions indicated by the recent census. Free. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9470  

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon, Oct. 13 through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.com 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“Musee des Hommages” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 13: Leonard Chang reads from “Over the Shoulder”; Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

The Berkeley Yellowjackets ran roughshod over Alameda on Friday night, racking up 482 rushing yards on the way to a 48-14 home victory. 

Senior tailback Germaine Baird led the attack with 184 yards and a touchdown on just 13 carries, his best output of the season. Backups Craig Hollis, Roger Mason and Mario Mejia also scored rushing touchdowns for the ’Jackets. 

Berkeley (2-3 overall, 2-0 ACCAL) won the game easily despite committing 190 yards worth of penalties, a large percentage of which were for unsportsmanlike conduct and other extra-curricular infractions. 

“I’d like to think this game was an anomaly,” Berkeley head coach Matt Bissell said of his team’s penalties. “We’ve had very few penalties until now. We told our players to be aggressive, but apparently we need to tell them when to not be too aggressive.” 

Berkeley penalties negated several big gains, including an interception return by safety Nick Schooler that looked like a touchdown. But Juleen Jacobs was called for roughing the passer on the play, negating the turnover. 

The ’Jackets ran up more yards in penalties than they allowed the Hornets to gain on offense. Alameda (2-3, 0-2 ACCAL) managed to gain just 183 yards, including just 29 on the ground. Berkeley’s linemen constantly knocked their opponents off the ball on both sides, although the offensive line was called for holding four times. 

“We definitely executed well today, running our plays right,” lineman Matt Toma said. “It just seemed like we would open a huge hole, the back would break downfield, and we’d look back and see a flag on the weak side. But we dominated the line of scrimmage tonight.” 

Early in the game, however, it was the Berkeley passing game that gave them a quick lead. Quarterback Raymond Pinkston connected for long touchdowns on his first two passes. The first came on the fourth play of the game’s opening drive, a 38-yard toss that wideout Lee Franklin came down with in a crowd. 

After Alameda’s first drive resulted in a loss of 19 yards, Berkeley got the ball back at midfield. Pinkston needed just three plays this time, hooking up with Sean Young down the left sideline for 44 yards and a score, and the ’Jackets were up 12-0 after just six minutes of play. 

“(Berkeley offensive coordinator Charles) Johnson told us their DBs couldn’t stay with us, so we went right after them,” Franklin said. 

Alameda’s next drive looked doomed as well, as two plays were stuffed and the Hornets faced third-and-17. But quarterback Tom Gay looked off Berkeley Schooler before finding Drew Kocal on a quick slant for 55 yards. That big play gave Alameda some life, and Gay found running back Jay Castro on an out pattern for a touchdown. 

Berkeley’s next drive stalled at the Alameda 29, and the Hornets marched down the field for another score. Gay connected on two passes, Castro picked up 17 yards on a draw, and Berkeley helped out with a 15-yard facemask penalty to put the Hornets on the two-yard line. Gay then hit Tavis Vee on a wide receiver screen for the touchdown, and the point after gave Alameda a 14-12 lead. 

But that would be the last time the Hornets scored, and Berkeley just started piling up the rushing yards. Running back Aaron Boatwright got the ball rolling with a 34-yard scamper on the following drive, and Baird put the ’Jackets ahead for good with an 8-yard touchdown sweep.  

Berkeley nearly scored again before halftime, as Franklin made a tremendous one-handed catch to put them inside the 20 with seven seconds left, but an attempted quarterback throwback was snuffed out by the Hornets, and Berkeley went into the locker room with a 20-14 lead. 

The ’Jackets headed into the second half roaring. After forcing a three-and-out by Alameda, Mason scored on a 34-yard run right up the middle, trucking over the last Hornet defender. The Hornets couldn’t pick up a first down on the next drive either, but a blocking in the back penalty on the Berkeley punt return put the ball on the Berkeley 8-yard line. The Berkeley coaches then used all their backfield weapons to break Alameda’s spirit, using five different runners on an eight-play, 92-yard drive that ended in a 14-yard touchdown for Hollis. 

“We blessed with a bunch of great athletes,” Johnson said. “We might even have too many good guys at running back. But they all understand that if they do their jobs, they’ll all get a chance.” 

Hollis, who finished the game with 96 yards on 11 carries, is a junior and has shown flashes of talent that could make him one of the regions top runners next year. Despite splitting his backup duties with Boatwright, Mason and Mejia, he is the front-runner to replace Baird as the main man next year. 

“Right now my job is just to back Germaine up,” Hollis said. “But next year should be my year.” 

Berkeley’s next score came on their lone passing play of the second half, a 62-yard bomb from Pinkston to Young as time ran out in the third quarter. Young has scored on three long plays in Berkeley’s last two games, and his coaches consider him to be one of the best deep threats in the league, a realization Young seems to finally be making himself. 

“I think I can keep doing this if I keep trying really hard,” the soft-spoken junior said. “Our passing game is going pretty good with me and Lee.” 

Mejia capped the scoring with a 35-yard run with four minutes left in the game. 

“We’re finally coming together as a team,” Pinkston said. “We’re like a family now. It’s all love.”

The City Council narrowly approved a controversial redistricting plan Tuesday that has moderate councilmembers accusing progressives of manipulating a census undercount to add an extra 4,500 students to District 8. 

The progressive council block – Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and councilmembers Dona Spring, Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington and Margaret Breland – acknowledged the imbalance in District 8, in the southeast section of the city. But they argued the chosen plan, drafted by two progressive residents, is the most consistent with the City Charter, which requires districts be redrawn to maintain the original districts that were drawn in 1986. 

The council approved the first reading of the new district lines by a vote of 5-4, with moderates Mayor Shirley Dean and  

councilmembers Polly Armstrong, Betty Olds and Miriam Hawley voting in opposition. The council will vote on the second reading of the new boundaries at next Tuesday’s meeting. If the council approves the second reading, the new boundaries will go into effect 30 days later. 

Moderates contend the approved plan was designed to weaken Armstrong’s popularity, by using the census undercount to put a large number of students, who are inclined to vote progressive, in her district. 

Progressives argued that the staff-produced plan, known as Scenario 5, that moderates preferred, would have weakened Worthington in District 7, by breaking up the Bateman neighborhood, a stronghold of support for him. 

The two council factions argued bitterly prior to voting on the plan, drafted by Michael O’Malley and David Blake. Blake is a former aide to Maio.  

Moderates suggested that a progressive-forged “back-room deal” during a meeting the day before the plan’s initial approval on Oct. 2.  

“Moderate councilmembers ought to reflect very carefully about the perception of this plan,” Dean said. “It needs to be fixed otherwise (the council) will forever be suspect.” 

Progressive councilmembers, which have a majority on the nine-member council, argued the plan is consistent with the City Charter and that moderate charges are baseless and the result of sour grapes because the plan they favored was not approved. 

“The moderates have been screaming bloody murder and foul play because students were redistricted into District 8 instead of homeowners,” Spring said. “This is the only plan that creates districts where no incumbent councilmember, progressive or moderate, is prejudicially favored to be removed from office.” 

The bitter conflict is largely due to what city officials estimate to be an undercount of 4,500 people - mostly students - by the 2000 U.S. Census. The undercount primarily occurred in districts 7 and 8.  

Despite solid evidence of the census blunder, the City Charter requires the council to redraw district lines so that each of the city’s nine districts have equal populations based on the current census whether it’s flawed or not.  

So, based on the census, the new council districts have close to 12,800 residents in accordance with the City Charter. But “real” numbers, based on the 1990 U.S. Census and the UC Housing Office, suggest that District 8 far exceeds the other seven districts with a total of 17,100 residents, of which 55 percent or 9,700 are students. 

Further complicating the issue, the city is currently disputing the official count with the U.S. Census Bureau and if the count is adjusted to reflect the actual population, the charter would require the council to scrap the approved plan, which has inspired the worst acrimony between the two council factions is recent years, and begin the redistricting process anew. 

Prior to the vote, Armstrong, who represents District 8, wanted to make sure the record reflected the new plan’s defiance of the intention of the charter by creating a population imbalance. 

“This plan goes in with eyes wide open, understanding (the progressives) have moved 5,000 (Armstrong’s estimate) extra people into District 8,” she said. “I want to make it clear that District 8 will have 5,000 more people when the dust clears.” 

Also prior to the vote, Maio said she was troubled by the population imbalance but chose to support the progressive plan and called the moderates’ charges of a back-room deal a “red herring.”  

“I felt very supportive of (the progressives’) issue because they have been very supportive of issues that matter a lot to me,” she said and then added. “I do acknowledge that approved plan puts a larger number of people into Polly Armstrong’s district.” 

In an Oct. 12 press release, Maio said the approved plan is the best plan given the restraints of the charter because it does not distort existing boundary lines and does not create a disadvantage for any sitting councilmember.  

Maio said she supports redrawing the district lines if the census is corrected to reflect the actual populations in districts 7 and 8. 

“We may be embroiled in another redistricting debate in just a few months,” she said. “Something to look forward to!”

Editor: 

It appears I was one of the few who wrote to the city in support of Bette’s Diner getting access to the space formally occupied by Made to Order. I too am a fan of Hopkins Bakery, but come on, this is America, NOT the people’s republic of Berkeley as some outsiders think.  

Capitalism and a free economy are live and well here, or at least should be. Hopkins should welcome the competition which adds to the district rather than cower and complain that Bette’s should not get a permit.  

I guess they got their “just deserts” with La Farine coming in, a 100 percent bakery operation! Be careful what you ask for, Hopkins! 

Dana Tillson 

Berkeley

The Cal women’s soccer team got back to their winning ways on Friday, beating Oregon 3-0 in the Pac-10 opener for each team at Pape Field in Eugene. 

The Bears improved to 9-2-1, 1-0-0 in the conference while Oregon drops to 6-3-1 and 0-1-0.  

Cal scored its first goal on a 20-yard shot from Brittany Kirk in the 10th minute on an assist from Kassie Doubrava.  

Despite the field position being equal for much of the game, the Bears added a second goal in the 54th minute by All-American Laura Schott, who ranks 16th in the nation in goals.  

The Ducks gave up the match’s final score to Doubrava in the 65th minute on an assist

Early on Oct. 20, 1991, John Traugott was finishing up a morning run in the Berkeley hills. The UC Berkeley English professor was rounding a curve a few blocks from his house when he noticed the eastern sky turning orange.  

Traugott had seen that same orange sky in 1970, when a wildfire devastated the East Bay hills.  

“I immediately knew what it was,” Traugott said. “And I knew the whole place was going to go.” 

The firestorm he saw would eventually raze his home on Alvarado Road and more than 3,000 others in Oakland and Berkeley. The concrete of Traugott’s patio turned to dust. Heavy iron cooking pots melted into mush.  

But perhaps most painful to Traugott, he lost two manuscripts of unfinished books that he had spent years creating. He has spent the last 10 years trying to create them again.  

The firestorm of 1991 wrenched many things from its victims. Thousands lost their homes, dozens lost their lives. But for many of the artists, writers, photographers and academics who populated the hills of the East Bay, they say the loss that truly broke their hearts was their work.  

On that morning, Traugott felt paralyzed by the enormity of the fire and the impossible decisions it demanded.  

“I was wondering what to do,” he said. “I couldn’t think of what to take out. So I just sat there.” 

Traugott was alone – his wife Elizabeth was in Chicago. Unable to react, he sat in his kitchen for about a half-hour, munching toast and drinking coffee, watching the orange sky grow darker. Distraught and disoriented, he finally managed pull himself out of his funk enough to do something.  

“I decided I’d get a suitcase and put something in it,” he recalled. “Then I went downhill to the Claremont hotel, and I opened up the suitcase and there wasn’t anything in it. I forgot to put anything in it – I was totally confused.” 

Eventually, he thought to retrieve the computer he said contained the two manuscripts – a book of essays on Jonathan Swift and a book about 18th century writers Samuel Richardson and Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. He walked back through the bushes, grabbed the computer and put it in his car before the house burned.  

But the computer was full of smoke, which can destroy the data inside. He later took it to a specialist who tried to salvage it, but who actually did more damage to it, Traugott said. By then, there was nothing left of the manuscripts.  

“They’re both gone,” he said. “I couldn’t go back and redo the research – I just didn’t have the energy at that point. So these two books are being rewritten from the top of my head, totally.” 

But Traugott, age 70, said he wonders whether he will ever finish the work.  

“I’m trying to finish it, but it goes so slowly. There are times when I can’t work on the books, because, I don’t know, I’ve done it before. It’s so fatiguing to try and recover these things.” 

*** 

For others in the Berkeley Hills, remaking what was lost was never even an option.  

Nancy Pollack, a painter and sculptor, had been in Hawaii when the fire hit. She lost a life’s worth of work when her house on Gravatt Drive burned. Strangely, Pollack, a self-professed packrat, felt the loss as a sort of liberation.  

“I never cried,” she said. “And I’m so emotional – I cry at everything.” 

Since there was no way remake years of original art, Pollock said she took the opportunity to start anew.  

“I said, gee, I can be anything I want. I don’t have a past,” she said. “I thought, maybe I won’t even have some of the same challenges. Maybe I won’t have trouble with the right-hand corner of my paintings any more.” 

Among her first projects after the fire, Pollock took the few items still recognizable after the blaze and worked them into sculptures: a set of blackened silverware mounted on a bronze-colored base, shards of clay pots arranged around an odd deck of cards that miraculously survived.  

“I don’t take myself that seriously anymore, because hey, poof, it’s gone,” she said.  

*** 

Jeremy Larner, a novelist, poet and Oscar-winning screenwriter who lived on Grand View Drive, drove to safety with his computer. In the confusion of the moment, Larner had grabbed not just the hard disk containing eight years of work, but made several trips to get the heavy computer components.  

“It’s interesting what you take when you run out of your house,” he said. “It was ridiculous for me to carry out my computer printer.” 

What he did not think to grab were 30 years worth of notebooks and a filing cabinet containing two manuscripts, including an unpublished novel. But, like Pollock, he said he felt almost unburdened by the loss.  

“The funny thing is that I was relieved,” he said. “I never missed them. Whatever was in those notebooks belonged to somebody I no longer was.”  

Larner would later write about going back to where his house had stood, and finding the filing cabinet: 

“Inside, I see a miracle – a sheaf of papers. I see letters, print – the lost manuscripts! I strain against the metal till I can wedge my hand inside. And the pages turn to dust in my fingers.” 

In the last ten years, many fire victims have rebuilt their houses and their lost work. John Traugott’s once-verdant backyard had been reduced to cinders, but now it blooms again, complete with towering redwood trees that have grown entirely since the fire.  

“It all came back,” said Traugott. “That’s been the most satisfying thing about the recovery. Ashes are good for growing.” 

The Daily Planet received this letter addressed to Councilmember Dona Spring regarding a statement on terrorism. 

I was born in (what was then called) Palestine in 1941, grew up with many Arab friends, studied and lived in the United States since 1966. I do understand why so many Americans are so misinformed about the forces that shape and motivate people in the Middle East to do terrible things to each other and the steps that one can take to avoid the disasters. The main problem is that our assumptions of “cause and effect” or “action and reaction” is invalid, because of our cultural and other differences in our basic thinking. We can't assume how terrorists will react even to our most primitive attempts to communicate with them. They read red in our blue. 

They expect us to think and act like them. They want to teach not to learn. Look at Sadam Hussein; he could have had it so much better just for trying to get along. We do need to minimize confrontation on any level and use a very strong hand when we find ourselves against the wall. America is against the wall. "Soft power" may be interpreted as a weakness - and will invite more killing. Any signal that you may give to the al Qaeda that there is a “force” in this country, which is “on their side,” will endanger our freedom a lot more than one can imagine. They may interpret dissent as an approval of their acts. Please, re think your position on this painful subject. 

G. Stavi 

Berkeley 

Ed note: Spring maintains that she was misquoted in the Daily Cal and did not say the United States was a terrorist nation.

KENT, Ohio - No. 14 Kent State broke a 1-1 deadlock with two second-half goals to defeat No. 20 California, 3-1, Oct. 11 at Dix Stadium. Junior Megan Spurling scored two goals to lift the Golden Flashes to their fourth straight victory.  

The first half scoring started quickly. Spurling rebounded her own saved shot and put it in the back of the net at 32:18. Cal (6-4) quickly answered when it converted on one of its two penalty corners of the night. Danya Sawyer controlled Nora Fedderson’s saved shot and scored the first goal of her career with 21:50 left in the first half.  

In the second period, Kent State (7-5) converted on a direct corner. Junior Helen scored with assists from sophomore Arlette van Cleeff and junior Kristen at 20:28. Spurling ended the scoring on a 2-on-1 break with van Cleeff.  

Junior keeper Emily Rowlen made five saves against three goals allowed before being relieved by freshman Kelly Knapp with 10:43 left in the game. Knapp made two saves on the night. The Golden Flashes had 12 penalty corner chances compared to two for Cal.  

The Bears travel down state to visit Ohio State on Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Library Gardens development, a five-building, 176-unit residential complex to be built behind the Berkeley Public Library, was approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board Thursday night. 

The project is the latest, but certainly not the last, of the major housing projects planned for the downtown area.  

A number of developers have recently set their sights on downtown – currently, there are at least four mid-sized to large housing developments apart from Library Gardens working their way through the city’s planning and permits process, for a total of 267 new apartments and condominiums. 

The rush to downtown seems to come in anticipation of the city’s new General Plan, which, if it is approved as expected next month, will place an emphasis on new housing construction in the center of the city. 

John DeClercq, senior vice president of TransAction Companies, which led the Library Gardens project, didn’t get the “9-0” vote he had hoped for from the ZAB, but he did come close. The board voted 7-1 on the project, with board member Carrie Sprague dissenting and board member Lawrence Capitelli absent. 

Sprague did have praise for Library Gardens’ “clever design,” but she said on Friday that out of concern for the neighborhood, she could not countenance the project’s intensive construction schedule. 

“They were very insistent that they wanted to work all day,” she said. “That’s the main thing I was worried about.” 

Library Gardens, with its 134,000 square feet of new floor space, is the largest housing development in Berkeley in recent memory. But it appears that much more is soon to follow in the downtown area, with the result that the economic and social dynamics of the city may be dramatically altered. 

The final draft of the Berkeley General Plan (July, 2001) calls for an increase in housing downtown in response to two needs: the housing crisis in the city and the Bay Area, and the ongoing revitalization of downtown. 

Steve Barton, director of the city’s Housing Department, said on Friday that he was pleased with the approval of Library Gardens, and that he looked forward to similar projects. Too often, he said, people want affordable housing but do not want either sprawl or greater density in urban areas. 

“People are in favor of housing in the abstract, but not in any particular place,” he said. “So it’s nice that in Berkeley there’s a general consensus to build new housing downtown.” 

Barton said that the housing crisis threatened the very character of the city, and that increased housing supply was one of the only ways that Berkeley could preserve its culture.  

“Often people here are not making as much money as they could if they wanted to,” he said. “People in Berkeley choose to work in research, or for a nonprofit, or in the arts, etc. That’s Berkeley’s role in the Bay Area, and if rents are not affordable, it is threatened.” 

The draft General Plan emphasizes residential development in the downtown partly because it well-served by mass transportation and partly because it could contribute to the area’s renaissance. Shattuck Avenue was once the unequivocal center of the city, but in the 1980’s it was injured, like many downtowns, by the nationwide exodus of people and business to the suburbs. 

Though revitalization programs in the 1990’s have been partly successful, the area still has not recovered its former glory. The downtown accounts for only 10 percent of all retail sales in the city – a figure equivalent to that of Telegraph Avenue, and dwarfed by West Berkeley’s 50 percent. 

Now, the hope is to invigorate the downtown by moving more people into the neighborhood. In the words of the Downtown Berkeley Association, “new permanent housing will increase street life, pedestrian traffic and a sense of community... and will generate increased demand for retail businesses – some of which are currently unavailable in the downtown.” 

If new residents are brought in, the thinking goes, new commercial and retail space will follow. The plan is reminiscent of Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland’s pledge to bring in 10,000 new residents to revitalize the downtown of his city. 

Though the plan does enjoy widespread support, some people are beginning to voice their concerns. 

Carrie Olson, a long-time Berkeley resident and a member of the city’s Design Review Committee, said Friday that she wants to make sure that the diversity of downtown is preserved. 

“I want the growth to be sensible,” she said. “I want to have a mixed community in the downtown, a community that represents Berkeley as a whole.” 

Olson said that the Design Review Committee recently gave the ZAB an unfavorable report on one of the larger new projects being proposed for downtown. The units in the building were too small to support families or older couples, who usually want more living space than students. 

“If we end up with just students downtown, we will get another version of Telegraph Avenue,” she said. “Some of the new projects may not do their best to discourage that.” 

Olson said she was somewhat suspicious of the notion that increased housing would necessarily bring more retail opportunities, or more liveliness generally, to the downtown.  

“What works about a successful urban space – like some parts of Paris – is that you can go downstairs, out on the street and find what you need to cook dinner,” she said. “That doesn’t exist in the downtown right now.” 

“Part of the city’s responsibility is to make sure those services – grocery stores, laundries, drug stores, all the things you need for daily life – will be there.” 

But Victoria Eisen, the principal planner for the Association of Bay Area Governments’ Smart Growth Strategy project, said that Berkeley’s strategy to promote housing downtown fits perfectly with the vision of “Smart Growth” her group is developing. 

“It’s true that when people move into these units right now, there may be not be a supermarket you can walk to,” she said. “What Berkeley and other communities are doing is to bring in residents to support existing services, and hopefully attract new services.”

Editor: 

Thank you for regularly including coverage on a local and national level about the conflict in Afghanistan. With government attempted censorship of the press, it becomes all the more important to keep this crises on the frontpage. Please continue to list, in your Out and About section, any vigils, protests, teach-ins, etc. that are planned and I think many readers would appreciate a list of relevant web sites.  

Diana Perry 

Berkeley

LOS ANGELES, CA - The University of California women’s volleyball team (5-8, 1-5) lost to No. 5 ranked UCLA (10-3, 5-3), 3-0 (31-29, 30-12, 30-21), Friday evening at Pauley Pavilion. The Bears, who have never defeated the Bruins in women’s volleyball (0-41), were led by freshman Mia Jerkov’s 12 kills, while sophomore Gabrielle Abernathy added 11 kills and a .300 hitting percentage, and junior Reena Pardiwala had a team-high 14 digs.  

UCLA was led by senior Kristee Porter’s 20 kills and .500 hitting percentage (20 kills, four errors, 32 attempts).

Editor: 

As long-time Berkeley residents, who have spent years living in Latin America and Asia, we urge the Daily Planet staff and readers to write and speak out against the “Ugly American,” “shoot-em-up justice” of President Bush that is likely to cause the death of many more innocent civilians. The U.S. should use the rule of law and international agreements to insure security for all nations. This will be the best guarantee of our own country’s security. 

Anna Marie Taylor and Richard Lerner 

Berkeley

One month after the September 11 attacks, Berkeley businesses are still reeling from the economic impacts of a tragedy that made people afraid to fly, reluctant to spend money and sometimes too depressed to enjoy restaurant meals or theater shows.  

Berkeley’s hotel occupancy rates are down 30-40 percent, said Barbara Hillman, Berkeley Convention and Visitor’s Bureau President. This decline began before Sept. 11, she said, but the post-attack travel slowdown “added fuel to the fire.”  

“Everybody’s been hit,” Hillman said. “But you can’t force people to take vacations, you can’t make people fly.” 

Jobs for hotel workers around the Bay have often been the first casualties in hospitality industry cutbacks. Half of the employees at the Berkeley Marina Raddison have had their hours cut, said Wei-Ling Huber of Local 2850, the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union. 

Officials said Berkeley’s restaurants and performing arts venues also took financial losses following the attacks. Hillman estimated that the city’s restaurants lost 40 percent in sales in the weeks after Sept.11. Bill Lambert, manager of economic development for the city, said that in the 30 days since the tragedy, there has been a “steep drop-off” in non-season ticket holder sales at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.  

Local merchants in Berkeley’s commercial districts are planning promotions to encourage more sales. “We’re thinking of a ‘Shop Local’ campaign,” said Lisa Bullwinkel, Executive Director of the Solano Avenue Association and a board member of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce.  

Bullwinkel said that merchants are planning promotions to encourage Berkeley locals to stay at Berkeley hotels. “People want to be connected with their families right now,” she said. “Hotels might offer packages for families who live in town, encouraging them to get out of the house for the weekend and spend time together.” 

But local officials say they don’t think that these economic losses will impact the city revenue. As San Francisco braces for a tax revenue crunch because of a slumping tourist industry, Berkeley officials say they are more concerned about a general economic downturn than direct financial losses related to the Sept. 11 attacks. 

When compared to San Francisco, “we have significantly fewer hotels and the hotel tax is less a piece of our overall budget,” said City Budget Manager Paul Navazio. 

Berkeley is home to only about 1,000 hotel beds, and hotel taxes generate just 1 percent of the city’s overall funds. 

Navazio anticipates that Berkeley’s budget will be well-insulated from the losses directly related to the attacks. “Our community is relatively less dependent on travel, tourism, and airlines, but like everyone else, we are impacted by general economic cycles,” he said. 

Other sources of tax revenue, including business licenses, parking fines, property taxes, and sales taxes, generate far more income to support city services. In the 2002 budget, sales taxes are expected to generate $14.8 million for city coffers, and parking fines $7.4 million. Hotel taxes are projected at just $3.7 million. 

“The Berkeley economy and tax base has less volatility” than other cities, Navazio said, because the largest employers, UC Berkeley, the city, and the school district, “don’t hire and fire in cycles.” Berkeley’s retail mix of boutiques and independent businesses, unlike stores like Costco, Target, or Home Depot, also tend to provide sales tax revenues that fluctuate less dramatically, he said. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that the council had already anticipated a general financial downturn before Sept. 11. “When we did the budget this year, we didn’t add a lot of new spending,” he said. “The budget is based on pretty fiscally cautious numbers to begin with.” 

Worthington said the Council built in reserve funds larger than “any time in history,” about 6 percent of the city’s general funds.  

Both Worthington and Navazio said they did not anticipate dramatic cuts in the city’s budget based on a decline in revenues. “We might make some small adjustments,” Worthington said.  

“But our bigger problem is the state and federal budget,” which allocates money to Berkeley for programs like homeless services or the city’s health department, Worthington said. Because of Sept. 11, Congress “may divert money away from social services and use the military as an excuse.”

Copwatch, a Berkeley-based civil liberties organization, held a forum Thursday night to discuss the controversial PATRIOT Act before Congress. 

In light of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has sought to pass the Provide Accurate Tools Required to Intercept Terrorist (PATRIOT) Act to combat potential terrorism in America. Copwatch believes the bill is unconstitutional.  

“We felt it was necessary to break down the changes that will take place,” said Andrea Prichett, founding member of Copwatch and organizer at the event. 

There were close to 40 people in attendance at the forum which was held at Dwinelle Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. 

The act would give the government the authority to conduct secret searches and intrude into other private sectors of American lives, Prichett said. 

Those who favor the act, however, point to the Sept. 11 attacks and say the precautions would help such acts from recurring.  

They also note that two-thirds of the Americans polled after the attacks said they would accept fewer civil liberties for stronger security measures. 

Copwatch representatives, however, said they believe otherwise. 

“They are not making our lives secure, but are putting are lives in danger,” said Gerald Smith, a member of Copwatch who spoke at the forum. 

Jason Cox, a member of the National Lawyers Guild and a speaker at the forum, called the bill provisions “draconian” and “a right-wing prosecutor’s dream list.” 

The forum ended with a question and answer session about civil liberates in general in relation to dealing with the local authorities – Copwatch’s specialty.

SAN FRANCISCO — Unable to rally support for a strike, the union representing 27,000 workers at Northern California’s two largest grocery chains on Friday reluctantly accepted a contract that labor leaders described as a setback for employees struggling to afford the region’s high housing costs. 

The change of heart by the United Food and Commercial Workers union ends weeks of bickering between the management and workers at 294 Northern California supermarkets run by market leaders Safeway and Albertson’s. The chains, which had been negotiating as a team, characterized the contract proposal as their “last, best” offer. 

The contract will raise workers’ wages by an average of 10 percent, or $1.50 per hour, over three years. The union wanted raises of $2.40 per hour over three years. The initial raise of 50 cents per hour is retroactive to July 1. 

The contract is expected to set the standard for thousands of other clerks at rival supermarkets in Northern California. The workers at Safeway and Albertson’s stores in the Sacramento area accepted a nearly identical contract in July. 

Less than three weeks ago, the union recommended that the San Francisco Bay area workers reject the contract and prepare to strike. 

More than 61 percent of the workers voted against the contract in results announced earlier this week. But union rules prohibit a strike unless at least 66.7 percent of workers reject a contract. Labor leaders said Friday the strike would have been authorized with overwhelming customer support if not for the anxieties raised by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. 

The contract is “not fair and not adequate,” but labor leaders felt they had no negotiating leverage without the power to strike, said Ron Lind, a spokesman for the UFCW. 

“The reality is that a strike is our only weapon,” Lind said. “If you don’t have that, there isn’t much you can do.” 

Pleasanton-based Safeway and Boise, Idaho-based Albertson’s had little to say about the labor agreement. “We look forward to continuing to serve our customers,” the chains said in a statement. 

During a press conference with labor leaders Friday, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown applauded the workers for not “disrupting the food supply systems” so soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

“It is not the time to militantly pursue their legitimate and justifiable claims,” Brown said. 

Labor leaders said employees need more money to live in the San Francisco Bay area, where the cost of a mid-priced home increased 66 percent to $476,000 since the workers signed their previous contract in 1997. Accepting the new contract means the store workers will have to live in less expensive outlying areas and drive even farther to their jobs, Lind said. 

The current pay for the Northern California retail clerks ranges from $7.75 per hour to $17.58 per hour, making them among the best paid in their profession, according to management. Less than two-thirds of the store workers log 40-hour weeks, according to union officials. 

Accepting the 10 percent raise represented a “great sacrifice” by the store workers, said Walter Johnson, secretary treasurer of the San Francisco Labor Council of the AFL-CIO. 

“I want to thank them for having the courage to do that,” Johnson said. 

On The Net: 

http://www.safeway.com 

http://www.albertsons.com

SACRAMENTO — A traditional family coalition, claiming to represent a majority of the state’s opinion, rallied at the Capitol on Friday, asking the governor to veto a domestic partners bill. 

The Campaign for California Families opposes a bill to provide gay and lesbian couples and senior heterosexual couples a dozen of the same rights given to heterosexual married couples. Supporters call it the biggest expansion of domestic partner law in the country. 

Campaign leader Randy Thomasson said Friday, “All over the state people are finding something awful is happening in the Capitol.” 

Thomasson, standing with 40 supporters after similar rallies in five other cities this week, said Gov. Gray Davis should veto the bill for reasons he’s used with others: that it’s a drain on the budget. 

“He has a choice to be a man of his word and fiscally responsible, or he can become the biggest hypocrite in the state,” Thomasson said. 

The Campaign claims the bill would cost the state $1 million per year, but the proponents say it would save money in tax benefits. 

Davis has until midnight Sunday to sign or veto the bill. 

Supporters of the legislation by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, say it’s only fair that gay partners get more of the same rights as heterosexual married couples. 

Eric Astacaan of the California Alliance for Pride and Equality, said, “These are critical tools that couples need in times of crisis.” 

Among them are rights to make medical decisions for incapacitated partners, sue for wrongful deaths, act as conservators and adopt a partner’s child. Other rights include sick leave to care for a family member and provide partners with employer-based health care coverage. 

Astacaan said, “They are very basic. You would think with all the things that are happening right now these things would not rile people up.” 

The domestic partner bill follows Migden’s 1999 legislation creating a registry for domestic partners at the Secretary of State’s office. More than 16,000 people signed up, giving them rights to visit partners in the hospital and negotiate state health benefits for partners. Astacaan said the city of San Francisco and corporations such as American Airlines, Microsoft, Intel and Apple offer health benefits for domestic partners. 

Thomasson said Migden’s bill undermines a March 2000 vote in which most voters said marriage should be between a man and woman. 

Gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon also called on Davis to veto the bill. 

Read AB25 at www.assembly.ca.gov.

SACRAMENTO — Legislation to give California’s worst public schools an extra $200 million to try to boost student test scores was signed into law Friday by Gov. Gray Davis. 

Davis also approved another education bill that will allocate $80 million a year for four years to train teachers and instructional aides how to meet new state math and reading standards. 

“We intend on training every teacher so our children can be successful,” said Kerry Mazzoni, Davis’ education secretary. 

But the governor vetoed bills to  

train substitute teacher, increase physical education classes, allow more school districts to receive busing money and  

extend a program that provides schools with $250 million a year to buy  

instructional material.  

The bills were among dozens of measures that the Democratic governor considered as he worked toward a Sunday deadline to sign or veto bills approved by lawmakers in the last hectic days of their 2001 session. 

Any bills not acted on by then will become law without his signature. 

The school improvement measure, by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, will allow approximately 500 schools with the worst test scores to qualify for $400 per pupil for three years. 

The money will be in addition to other state support, said Andrea Jackson, a spokeswoman for Steinberg. 

Schools in the program will have to develop plans to boost students achievement, attract and retain good teachers and principals and increase parental involvement. 

Steinberg said the bill will give those schools “the flexibility to focus on the particular learning needs of their student populations.” 

The teacher training bill, by Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, D-Duncans Mills, will provide 120 hours of training for 176,000 teachers and 22,000 classroom aides in reading and math instruction. 

Davis vetoed a bill by Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, that would have extended the instructional materials program another four years, from 2002-03 through the 2005-06 fiscal year. 

He said providing students with appropriate textbooks and other instructional materials was one of his highest priorities, but that the state couldn’t afford the additional expense. 

Davis cited the slump in the economy and state revenues to also veto bills that would have doubled physical education requirements for seventh and eighth graders, set up at least three programs to train substitute teachers working at low-performing schools and allow more school districts to receive student transportation money from the state. 

Davis also signed legislation Friday to: 

— Set up a state-maintained list of potential organ and tissue donors that could be tapped by federally designated organ procurement organizations and tissue banks. 

— Allow the state Medical Board to fine doctors up to $2,500 if they fail to tell their female patients how to detect gynecological cancers. 

— Require the installation of solar energy systems on all state buildings and parking garages. 

— Give local governments more clout to force property owners to clean small contaminated urban parcels commonly known as brownfields. 

— Require large air districts to use at least half of the $48 million appropriated to three diesel-emission reduction programs in low-income communities with high levels of pollution. 

NEW YORK — An assistant to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw contracted the skin form of anthrax after opening a “threatening” letter to her boss that contained a suspicious powder, authorities and the network said Friday. 

Officials quickly said there was no known link to either the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or the far more serious inhaled form of anthrax that killed a supermarket tabloid editor in Florida last week. The 38-year-old NBC employee was being treated with antibiotics and is expected to recover. The letter was postmarked Sept. 20 and opened Sept. 25, authorities said. 

A federal criminal investigation was launched to find the source of the anthrax, and health officials scrambled to retest the powder to see if contained the germ. Initial tests had been negative, but authorities said the sample was so small they were reluctant to interpret the results. 

The letter to NBC and a letter containing an unknown powder received Friday by The New York Times both were postmarked from St. Petersburg, Fla., said Barry Mawn, head of the FBI office in New York. The Times’ letter was postmarked Oct. 5. 

There was some similarity in the handwriting on both letters, Mawn said, declining to discuss the contents. Both were anonymous letters with no return address. 

The case sent a chill through a city still reeling from the World Trade Center disaster. Emergency rooms reported a higher number of patients asking for anthrax tests or requesting antibiotics. News organizations across the country shored up mailroom security. And the postmaster general advised everyone to watch for suspicious letters and packages. 

There have been anthrax scares from Connecticut to Nevada over the past week but no known cases except in Florida and New York. 

President Bush said the government was doing all it could to protect the public. 

“The American people need to go about their lives. We cannot let terrorists lock our country down,” Bush said, addressing the anthrax case at a White House event celebrating Hispanic heritage. “They will not take this country down.” 

The anthrax case – the nation’s fourth in a week – was reported early Friday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after tests were completed on a skin sample from the victim. Further tests on the envelope and its contents were under way. 

“The most likely explanation is it was linked to this particular letter,” said Dr. Steven Ostroff of the CDC. “It makes sense.” 

The CDC said it was possible the NBC employee was contaminated by something other than the envelope. NBC News reported that the envelope also contained a “threatening” letter. 

NBC employees were evacuated from part of the 70-story GE Building in Rockefeller Center, which is home to Brokaw’s “Nightly News,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” 

“Living in New York and working in this building for this company, you’re already on edge,” said Brian Rolapp, 29, a business development manager for NBC. “I think everyone is a little startled that it’s this close to home.” 

The “Nightly News” was broadcast Friday from the ground-floor “Today” show studios, instead of its usual third-floor home. 

At the end of the broadcast, Brokaw, who has appeared on NBC’s evening newscasts for the last 18 years, thanked viewers for their concern and then spoke of his colleague. 

“She has been — as she always is — a rock. She’s been an inspiration to us all,” he said. “But this is so unfair and so outrageous and so maddening, it’s beyond my ability to express it in socially acceptable terms. So we’ll just reserve our thoughts and our prayers for our friend and her family.” 

Later, in an interview on “Dateline NBC,” Brokaw said he would protectively take the anthrax antibiotic Cipro, and believed most of his staff would too. 

“The chances of anyone else contracting this are very low,” Brokaw said Friday night. “But this is the ultimate nightmare. We just have to stay focused on what we know and not what we don’t know.” 

A few blocks away, one floor of The New York Times building was cleared after Judith Miller, a reporter who co-wrote a recent best seller on bioterrorism, opened a letter containing a powdery substance a spokeswoman said smelled like talcum powder. 

In a story on the Times’ Web site, Miller was quoted as saying the letter “contained future threats against the United States.” 

Executive Editor Howell Raines said initial tests indicated the powder did not pose any immediate problem. Air tests for radioactive and chemical substances were negative. 

The Associated Press, located across the street from NBC, temporarily closed its mailroom. Other media organizations modified mail security procedures. 

The skin and inhaled forms of anthrax are caused by the same bacterium. The only difference is whether the microscopic spores enter the skin through a cut or are inhaled into the lungs. It takes more than 8,000 spores to cause the inhalation form of anthrax. Neither form can be spread directly from person to person. 

When caught through the skin, anthrax is a much less serious disease. The first symptoms are reddish-black sores on the skin. If the disease is caught at that point and treated with antibiotics, it is easily cured. Even without treatment, cutaneous anthrax is fatal in only one case out of 20. 

Dr. Scott Lillibridge, the bioterrorism chief for the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, said the NBC employee is believed to have handled the envelope on Sept. 25. Three days later, she noticed a dark-colored lesion, Lillibridge said, and on Oct. 1 began taking the antibiotic Cipro for another infection. 

When the lesion started developing characteristics of anthrax, “a very alert and astute clinician” ordered skin tests, CDC Deputy Director David Fleming said. The results came back Friday. 

NBC said it had immediately contacted the FBI, the CDC and the New York Department of Health after the envelope arrived. 

Although the complaint was received the day the letter was opened, the FBI didn’t respond until a day later, Mawn said. Tests were delayed by two or three days because FBI agents were unable to speak with Brokaw’s assistant, he said. 

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said all network employees exposed to the powder will be tested for anthrax and treated with Cipro. 

“People should not overreact to this,” Giuliani said. “Much of this is being done to allay people’s fears.” 

Giuliani said there appeared to be no connection between the two New York letters and an FBI warning issued Thursday about additional terrorist action at home or abroad. 

Last Friday, a photo editor for The Sun supermarket tabloid in Boca Raton, Fla., died of the more serious inhaled form of anthrax. The American Media building where Bob Stevens, 63, worked was sealed off after anthrax was found on his keyboard. 

Traces of anthrax were later found in the mailroom. Two other employees turned out to have anthrax in their nasal passages, but neither has developed the disease. Both are taking antibiotics, and one has returned to work. 

In Florida, FBI agent Hector Pesquera said test results of 965 people who were in the building recently found no new infections. Pesquera said investigators are still trying to determine how the anthrax got into the building. 

SACRAMENTO — California Highway Patrol officials briefed state mailroom workers Friday on how to handle increasing fears about the spread of the anthrax. 

Gov. Gray Davis requested a series of training sessions after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. “Spike” Helmick. On Friday, Davis directed all state government mailroom workers to suspend opening mail until they have received the training. 

“We are not doing this out of fear of any specific threat,” Helmick said. “We are not aware of any specific threat to a state building or state employees or to anyone for that fact.” 

About 50 people who handle mail for top-ranking state officials attended Friday’s briefing in the governor’s office. An additional briefing will take place Saturday for other state workers and a training video also will be made available, according to Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio. 

“Although no reports of anthrax have been received in our state, it is critical that all Californians be alert,” Davis said in a statement issued Friday. 

Vince Curry, CHP’s hazardous material training officer, told the group about telltale signs of suspicious packages, such as unusually large amounts of postage, a lack of return address and sloppy or overseas addressing. 

He also provided educational materials to the group about the anthrax bacteria, its causes and treatments. 

Helmick said rubber gloves will be provided to workers who handle mail. And he advised workers to immediately report suspicious packages or letters to authorities. 

“The less contact you have with the substance, obviously, the better,” he said. 

All state employees who handle mail are trained when they’re first hired about how to spot potential bombs and other threats, Helmick said. 

In this busy bill-signing period, the governor’s office alone receives about 25,000 pieces of mail a week, aides said. 

Armando Pacheco, an office assistant for the State Department of Insurance, attended the briefing. 

“It’s pretty scary to think that you are the first person to know what’s going on,” he said. 

——— 

On the Net: The FBI’s Web site includes tips on what to do if you receive suspicious mail at http://www.fbi.gov/. Davis has posted information from the FBI and state Health and Human Services Department at http://www.my.ca.gov 

WASHINGTON — The tourism industry came to Capitol Hill, looking for help to deal with big losses after the terrorist attacks. 

Senators listened Friday as travel agents, hotel operators, government officials and others painted a dire picture of the nation’s $528 billion tourism industry. They asked Congress for grants, government-backed loans and federal spending to promote travel. 

Senators were receptive, though it’s unclear how much they can do.  

Expenses still are mounting from the military campaign in Afghanistan, tens of billions already have been set aside for the airlines and to help clean up and rebuild New York City, and others – from insurance companies to Amtrak to local water suppliers – want billions more. 

“It’s very important for us to act and to act boldly,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on tourism. 

Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., warned that Congress probably won’t be as quick with money for tourism as it was with the $15 billion airline industry bailout. 

Though he said he was sympathetic, Fitzgerald, the only senator to vote against the airline bill, said the tourism industry simply doesn’t have the “raw political clout” on Capitol Hill to get the kind of assistance the airlines got. 

Congress is considering a pair of tourism-related measures: a bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that would create a $60 million travel promotion bureau in the Commerce Department, and another sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to give a tax credit for personal travel. 

The tourism industry is vital to the country’s economy, employing almost 8 million people and generating more than $170 billion in payroll. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, though, waves of canceled trips, tours and vacations have forced tens of thousands of layoffs. 

Hawaii, a tourist magnet that normally welcomes 20,000 travelers every day, has seen a 40 percent drop in visitors, said Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono. “Hawaii could face the steepest economic decline in our recent history,” Hirono said. 

Washington Mayor Anthony Williams gave a similarly bleak assessment of tourism in his city since the attacks. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has emphasized New York City’s dependence on visitors. 

Bill Marriott, chairman and chief executive of Marriott International Inc., said reservations at Marriott hotels worldwide fell by 94 percent following the attacks. 

“Our big city and resort convention hotels have been hit the hardest, with massive group cancellations,” Marriott said. He predicted a wave of hotel and motel closings as companies fail to meet debt payments. 

Across the country, half the hotel industry’s 2 million workers have been either laid off or have seen their work week cut to just one or two days. 

“This is not getting better,” said John Wilhelm, president of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union. He added that the impact will be especially felt in urban areas and among the working poor who provide much of the labor. 

Kyl said his Travel America Now Act, with the tax credit of $500 a person or $1,000 a couple for all personal travel taken between Sept. 11 and the end of the year, offered a “good policy prescription” to the ailing travel industry. 

“It is immediate, specific and quick,” he said. “The whole idea is to provide a quick incentive to get people back to traveling again.” 

Boxer’s bill, the Rediscover America Act, seeks to replace an office, dismantled years ago, that oversaw a federal program to promote domestic tourism and travel from overseas visitors.

WASHINGTON — The House on Friday quickly approved anti-terrorist legislation pushed by the Senate and White House to increase the government’s power to spy on, detain and punish suspected terrorists. 

Before passage, however, the House insisted on changing the Senate package to put a five-year expiration deadline on the most intrusive of the new measures, including roving wiretaps, because of misgivings about civil liberties. It also dumped a Senate money-laundering provision, which is moving separately through the House. 

House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said he hoped the Senate would accept the House changes and send the bill to President Bush. Bush was pleased with the House passage, on a 337-79 vote. 

“I commend the House for passing anti-terrorism legislation just one day after the Senate took action,” he said in a statement. 

“The House and Senate bills are virtually identical. I urge the Congress to quickly get the bill to my desk. We must strengthen the hand of law enforcement to help safeguard America and prevent future attacks – and we must do it now.” 

Despite the presidential plea, possible delays loomed. “We will not support a counterterrorism bill that does not have money-laundering provisions in it,” Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said. “Whether it’s done in conference or whether it’s done in the House of Representatives, it must be done, and we will insist that it be done.” 

The Senate approved its version 96-1 late Thursday night. Both the House and Senate anti-terrorism measures would expand the FBI’s wiretapping authority, impose stronger penalties on those who harbor or finance terrorists and increase punishment of terrorists. 

Members of the House Judiciary Committee were unwilling to give police some of the powers the Senate did, however, such as allowing secret “sneak and peak” searches of suspects’ homes. 

Until Friday, the House also had put the burden on the government to prove that an alien suspect was a terrorist instead of making the suspect prove he was not. Also dropped was an earlier House insistence that police get a court order before seizing business and phone records in terrorism investigations. 

The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the legislation.  

“Most Americans do not recognize that Congress has just passed a bill that would give the government expanded power to invade our privacy, imprison people without due process and punish dissent,” said Laura Murphy, director of the the group’s Washington office. 

With the Senate gone for the weekend and no final resolution possible, Democrats argued that the House should wait until Monday before passing the 175-page bill so that members could read it. 

“This could be the Gulf of Tonkin resolution for civil liberties, instead of a measure meant to fight terrorism,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. Because of a reported attack on two U.S. warships, Congress gave President Johnson a free hand in August 1964 to strike back at attacks on U.S. forces in Southeast Asia, which Johnson used to greatly expand the Vietnam War. 

With the government daily looking at new terrorist threats, however, Republicans argued there was no time to wait. 

“This is the same bill that the Senate passed last night. It’s the same bill that has been available for a few weeks,” said Rep. David Weldon, R-Fla. “These are not new issues.” 

Differences probably will have to be worked out among House, Senate and White House negotiators, but key lawmakers promised finding a compromise won’t require the year it took to finish anti-terrorism legislation after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. “We will complete that conference quickly,” said the Senate Judiciary chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. 

House Republicans continued to balk at considering legislation Bush requested for improving security at airports and aboard airliners. 

The Senate passed legislation Thursday that would make passenger and security gate baggage screeners at all major airports federal employees. Some House GOP leaders vigorously oppose the idea but admit they have fewer votes than those who support it. 

“I’m not taking the Senate bill up, period,” said Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska. 

After Bush administration officials agreed earlier to the Senate language on federalizing aviation security workers, White House officials said Friday they now don’t like it and want the Senate to reconsider. 

“It’s fair to say the president has broad authority here, and if the Congress is unable to act, the president does want to make certain that aviation security is attended to,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. 

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., head of the Transportation aviation subcommittee, said he would introduce his own bill that puts the federal government in charge of supervising but not hiring airport screeners. 

The new House anti-terrorism bill is HR 3108. The Senate bill is S. 1510. 

On the Net: Bill texts: http://thomas.loc.gov 

SEATTLE — A federal prosecutor who headed a prominent gun control group in his spare time was shot in his home and died early Friday. 

Thomas C. Wales, 49, died about 1:15 a.m. Friday at Harborview Medical Center. He had been shot in the neck and the side late Thursday, a hospital spokeswoman said. 

Details about the shooting were sketchy. The Seattle Times quoted unidentified federal sources saying the shots were fired from outside, through a basement window into a home office. 

No arrests had been made, police spokesman Mark Jamieson said. 

A neighbor, Emily Holt, said she heard the shots Thursday night and saw a man walking away. 

“He wasn’t running, just walking real fast. He got into his car,” parked about a block away under a tree and a streetlight, Holt said. 

Wales was a member of the fraud unit in the U.S. attorney’s office here, specializing in prosecution of banking and business crime, spokesman Lawrence Lincoln said. He had been in the office since 1983. 

He also was board president of Seattle-based Washington Ceasefire, a gun-control group that sponsored a failed initiative in 1997 that would have required handgun owners to undergo safety training and use trigger locks on their weapons. 

Attorney General John Ashcroft mourned the “tragic death in the Justice Department family.” 

Gov. Gary Locke said he respected Wales’ “tireless gun-control advocacy and work to prevent violence.” 

His death was “a terrible loss to our movement,” said a statement from Michael T. Barnes, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. 

The National Rifle Association mounted a $2 million campaign against Initiative 676, which had the support of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and other prominent state residents. 

“We don’t know who killed Tom, or why, but we know that our community has lost a kind, compassionate man and ... our nation has lost a courageous leader in the movement against gun violence,” said a statement from Bruce Gryniewski, Ceasefire’s executive director. 

Federal agencies were assisting Seattle police in the investigation. Officials with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms declined to comment. 

Neighbors in the wealthy Queen Anne Hill neighborhood said they heard shots shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday. 

Wales’ former wife, Elizabeth, a former Seattle School Board member, was in Europe with the couple’s adult son and daughter, The Times reported, quoting federal sources. The couple divorced a few years ago but were on friendly terms, neighbors said. The ex-wife continued to maintain an office in the home. 

On the Net: 

Washington Ceasefire: http://www.waceasefire.org

BOSTON — In a ruling aimed at bringing the law in line with advances in science, Massachusetts’ highest court unanimously declared Friday that a couple whose twins were born to a surrogate mother were the children’s legal parents from the moment of birth. 

The Supreme Judicial Court, in a 7-0 ruling, urged the Legislature to enact new laws to address “the medical, legal and ethical aspects” of new types of reproductive technology. 

Marla and Steven Culliton had gone to court before the twins’ July 23 birth, asking that their names be put on the original birth certificates. A Family Court judge refused to allow it, but ordered that the birth certificates be left blank until the issue was settled. 

The high court’s decision Friday allows the Cullitons’ names to appear on the original birth certificates. 

Up to now, in Massachusetts, as in many other states, only the woman who gives birth is presumed to be the mother and can have her name on the original birth certificate. The genetic parents then have to go to court to obtain a new birth certificate with their names on it. They sometimes need to adopt their own child. 

But Justice John M. Greaney, writing for the court, said existing adoption laws were not written to address situations like the Cullitons’. 

The Cullitons’ lawyer, Mellisa R. Brisman, lauded the ruling as a “great victory for reproductive rights.” 

The Cullitons did not immediately return a call for comment. 

In agreeing with the Cullitons, the court noted they were the sole genetic parents of the children, that the surrogate agreed with their request, and that no one, including the hospital, contested the complaint. 

The Cullitons hired the surrogate after Ms. Cullion suffered six miscarriages. The woman was implanted with an embryo created from the couple’s sperm and egg. 

The Cullitons had asked that their names appear on the birth certificate immediately, and that they be recognized as the legal parents from the moment of birth. 

They argued that genetic parents should have the right to decide how and when to tell children about their being born to a surrogate. 

But Family and Probate Judge John Cronin questioned whether he had the authority to order such a step, and sought clarification from the high court.

WASHINGTON — Ford Motor Co. and the Environmental Protection Agency are joining in a decade-long project to develop a high-mileage hybrid vehicle, probably an SUV, that runs off hydraulic fluid, officials announced Friday. 

Hydraulic hybrid technology was developed and patented by EPA’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich., and refined under a cooperative agreement with Ford. 

Company officials said they felt compelled to explore beyond just proven technologies. “Hydraulic hybrid technology holds great promise for our customers and for our society,” said Gerhard Schmidt, a company vice president. EPA and Ford will share financing and personnel. Costs are expected to run in the millions of dollars, but exact amounts pledged under the agreement are considered proprietary, Ford spokesman Jon Harmon said. 

Though the Treasury would help pay the bill, Ford would have exclusive rights to the technology and hopes to put a pilot fleet of vehicles on the road by the end of the decade. The technology could improve significantly the fuel economy of light-duty trucks and sport-utility vehicles, the EPA said. Harmon said a large SUV probably will be the first vehicle Ford builds using the technology. The vehicle’s power train has a high-efficiency engine and a unique propulsion system that uses hydraulic pumps and storage tanks instead of electric motors and batteries used in electric-gas hybrid vehicles, officials said. 

Energy is stored as compressed hydraulic fluid, and similar to the electric-gas hybrid system, applying the brakes saves energy that can be used to power the vehicle, according to EPA and company officials. 

Other research companies involved in the project are FEV Engine Technology Inc., a German firm with a technical center in Auburn Hills, Mich.; and Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. 

——— 

On the Net: EPA National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory: http://www.epa.gov/OMSWWW/01-nvfel.htm 

Ford announcement: http://media.ford.com/newsroom/breakingNews.cfm? and click on item 

GREER, S.C. — Small businesses are trying to balance patriotism with capitalism as they look for the edge necessary to make it through rough economic times. 

From letting people take a sledgehammer to a car with Osama bin Laden’s name on it, to offering a $9.99 oil change only to American-made cars, they are coming up with creative business ideas while trying to avoid the appearance that they’re cashing in on patriotism. 

Sales at used car lot Thoroughbred Inc. have been down 30 percent since last month’s terrorist attacks, finance manager Hugh Williams said. 

Williams was trying to come up with an idea on how to get customers to the James Island lot and how to help out the local high school when he came up with Bash bin Laden Day. 

“We’re going to have Mr. bin Laden or whatever that idiot’s name is all over it and charge $2 to hit it with a sledgehammer,” Williams said. 

The lot will donate a junked car to the football team and let people take a whack at it.  

The car will debut at James Island’s homecoming game on Nov. 2 before it gets bashed the next day. 

Williams said the lot is running radio ads to drum up interest. 

“People can take out their frustrations on this guy and help a good cause, too,” Williams said. 

Places like Greenville Army Store has seen a marked increase in business since the attacks, owner Jeff Zaglin said. 

Some hot sellers include gas masks and U.S. flag patches, but Zaglin said he’s also seen an increase in military-style clothes for the 13-and-younger crowd. 

Dave Engelmann is seeing a lot more people in his motorcycle shop, but they aren’t buying his custom machines or leather biker clothes.  

It’s the U.S. flag magnets and the pro-American stickers that are flying off the front counter. 

At Stivers Lincoln-Mercury in Columbia, anyone with an America-made car can get an oil change for $9.99. The normal price is $24.95 

“We’ve effectively tripled our oil change business,” said Stivers. The $9.99 price is a loss, but “it’s our way of trying to help the economy.” 

Stivers, whose lot is peppered with U.S. flags and pro-American slogans, never worried for a moment he was going too far to cash in on this wave of patriotism. 

“We sell to a very patriotic customer base,” Stivers said. “Our demographic is people over 55. A lot of them served in Vietnam, a lot of them served in Korea and a lot of them served in World War II.” 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

My son and I were with our mechanic, Jeff, one Saturday morning when he was changing the oil in our minivan.  

Before he even touched the drain plug with a wrench, Jeff asked us where the oil had been changed last, because he saw red silicone around the drain plug.When he got the plug off, he saw why the silicone was there. The threads on the plug were stripped. The other garage had glued it in with the silicone instead of replacing it.  

I took the stripped plug back to the other shop, and they said they glue in stripped drain plugs all the time, and there’s nothing wrong with it.  

Is gluing in a stripped drain plug with silicone a normally accepted automotive practice? Do you gentlemen do it in your shop? — Ethan 

TOM: No, it’s not, and yes, we do. 

RAY: Just kidding, Ethan. We never glue in drain plugs, and neither does any other reputable shop. Gluing in a drain plug is bogus. Or, as my brother likes to say, bo-o-gus! 

TOM: Silicone is oil-resistant, but eventually it’s going to break down and fail. And when it does, the drain plug is going to fall out.  

And if it happens to fall out while you’re driving, it’s goodbye, motor. 

RAY: Sometimes drain plugs get stripped. And it might not have been the fault of that last shop (its oil change might simply have been the straw that broke the camel’s back). But once it’s discovered, it HAS to be fixed correctly. 

And if it’s just the drain plug itself, you can replace it for a few bucks. 

TOM: More often, though, the threads in the oil pan that the drain plug screws into are what get stripped.  

If it’s the oil pan, there are still a number of pretty simple options: There are oversized plugs you can buy, rethreading kits with inserts or self-tapping plugs. And there are rubber expanding plugs that are almost foolproof – i.e., we even let my brother install those. 

RAY: But I wouldn’t go back to those guys again, Ethan. They tried to cut corners on you, and they could have cost you a lot of grief and money. You’re lucky that Jeff caught it in time.  

••• 

Dear Tom and Ray: 

I need your help. My friend absolutely refuses to turn on his headlights until it is so dark that he HAS to have them on to see.  

He says the lights use a lot of energy and cut his gas mileage.  

I say that this is bunk, and I would rather burn a little extra gas than get clobbered by someone who doesn’t see me in the near dark. How can I convince my friend that this is not safe? — Rollie 

TOM: I’m not sure you should, Rollie. I mean, this is a perfect example of Darwinism at work.  

The idea is that the less capable members of the species die off and the more capable live to reproduce.  

And maybe this is nature’s way of protecting future generations from the equally dumb progeny of your pal here. 

RAY: You’re absolutely right, Rollie. Using the headlights does use energy, but it’s such an insignificant amount that you’d be hard-pressed to ever notice a difference in mileage.  

I mean, it’s a small fraction of a mile per gallon. 

TOM: You’re also right that the headlights serve two important purposes: They allow you to see, and they allow you to BE seen. 

And that’s why more and more cars have daytime running lights – essentially, headlights that are on all the time for additional visibility. 

RAY: I suppose if you really want to try to save this guy, you might show him a mock-up of his tombstone. It can read: “Here lies Shmendrick, hit by a UPS truck at dusk, but he saved two ounces of gasoline over his lifetime!”  

Got a question about cars? Write to Click and Clack by e-mail at the Car Talk section of cars.com

Stocks reacted to the first batch of third-quarter earnings results this past week with surprising strength despite the expected dismal news. 

The question is whether Wall Street can keep up that positive momentum as the bulk of earnings reports pour in during the next two weeks and after news of an anthrax case in New York City shook markets Friday. 

Investors will hear from many of the nation’s biggest companies next week with AOL Time Warner Inc., Gateway Inc., Citigroup Inc., Pfizer Inc., General Motors Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. all scheduled to report. 

In the market’s favor is that well before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks investors had extremely low expectations for the third quarter and had bid stocks sharply lower. Likewise, stock market strategists had lamented that there were few safe havens for investors, and reduced expectations across all sectors. 

“What we see analysts doing to this (third) quarter is turning it into a kitchen-sink quarter. They are throwing everything in,” said Chris Wolfe, equity market strategist for J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “It’s a bad quarter.” 

Analysts said ample warning of bad business helped the market on Wednesday shrug off Motorola Inc.’s disappointing earnings and 7,000 additional job cuts. But the bad news for stock prices as they try to move higher is the political uncertainty that continues to weigh on Wall Street, threatening to wipe out any advances. The market showed its vulnerability to fears of additional terrorist assaults Friday, initially falling on news of a fourth anthrax case before recovering. 

Another negative factor is the quality of upcoming third-quarter earnings reports, analysts said. Unlike the results that have already been released, those that come out in the next few weeks will take into account business for the three weeks following the attacks. 

“The third-quarter expectations had been drifting down anyhow. So, the whole profit picture had been eroding, but that trend just fell off a cliff,” after the attacks, said Charles H. Blood Jr., senior financial markets analysts at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. 

The earnings results released this past week by 54 companies within the Standard & Poor’s 500 index essentially met Wall Street’s expectations, Blood said. But for the most part, the results were not affected by the Sept. 11 attacks, because most companies were reporting for quarters that ended Aug. 31, he added. According to research by his firm, Blood said earnings expectations for S&P companies have been slashed 9.7 percent since the attacks in New York and Washington. Analysts now expect the nation’s biggest companies to post a combined earnings per share figure of $10.95, down from $12.13 anticipated just before the attacks. 

That said, the question on Wall Street is whether investors are adequately braced for even worse-than-expected results, or whether they still have a lot more selling to do. 

“The answer to that is going to be in the words of the reports rather than the numbers,” Blood said. “What investors are going to look at is how back the (post-attack) shock reaction was and where companies are in terms of bouncing back.” 

Analysts caution investors against reading too much into earnings reports, particularly negative ones. 

“The best we can hope for is that we decide it doesn’t really matter. Investors are supposed to discount earnings,” Blood said. In the near term, analysts expect the market to be sector-driven. Industries are likely to fall quickly in and out of favor as their bellwether companies issue their earnings. 

“It’s a tough market,” said Barry Hyman, chief investment strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum. “You have sectors rotating every other day. ... That creates a lot of anxiety among investors.” 

For the week, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 224.39 points, or 2.5 percent, despite falling 66.29 to 9,344.16 Friday. 

The Nasdaq gained 98.10, or 6.1 percent, for the week after inching up 1.93 Friday to 1,703.40. The S&P 500 ended the week up 20.27, or 1.9 percent, after declining 5.78 Friday to 1,091.65. 

The Russell 2000 index, the barometer of smaller company stocks, rose 13.62, or 3.3 percent, for the week, finishing Friday down 2.45 at 428.59. 

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index – which represents the combined market value of all New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq issues – ended the week at $10.049 trillion, up $212.010 billion from last week. A year ago the index was $12.803 trillion. 

Amy Baldwin is a business writer for The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The economic impact of the terrorist attacks is beginning to take a toll in California, which had held steady before Sept. 11 amid a national downturn in consumer and business spending. 

Earlier this year, strong tourism and business travel had offset troubles in the technology and international trade sectors. But tourism has plummeted in the past month, leaving thousands of hotel, restaurant and airlines workers without jobs or working reduced hours. 

Those job losses won’t be seen in official government statistics until November, but economists say California’s economy will almost certainly enter a mild recession in the final quarter of 2001 and may not recover until at least the middle of 2002. 

“There is no question that our economy is now experiencing the full impact of the national economic slowdown,” Gov. Gray Davis said Thursday while ordering state agency heads to prepare to cut their budgets by 15 percent in the next fiscal year. 

Another indicator of the slumping California economy came when new unemployment numbers were released Friday showing a slight increase to 5.4 percent in September. The figure reflected a 0.5 percent jump from September 2000. The jobless rate for August was 5.3 percent 

Those figures, however, were based on surveys conducted on or before Sept. 11 and do not reflect dramatic job cuts in the tourism industry that have been so severe that Standard & Poor’s recently placed Anaheim’s bonds on “credit watch.” Anaheim is the West Coast’s largest convention city. 

With such a huge economy, California would rank as the fifth largest in the world if it stood alone. Thus, the fear is that a recession here would shake the national economy. 

“Two large sectors of the national economy slowing down – California and New York – will definitely have an impact on the United States,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. 

The high-tech Silicon Valley area has suffered sharp job losses and drops in home values all year and will likely feel even greater pain in the coming months. Unemployment there reached 5.9 percent in September – a huge rise from the 1.3 percent last December. 

But the latest worry is tourism. 

From San Francisco’s Pier 39 to hotels in posh Beverly Hills, hundred of housekeepers, cooks and other low-wage workers have lost their jobs or seen their hours cut severely as tourists stay away and airlines cut flights. 

San Francisco’s city budget may come up $100 million short by the end of the fiscal year due, in part, to reduced tourism and the resulting decrease in hotel bed taxes and just about every tax that fuels the city’s $5.2 billion annual budget. 

In Anaheim, at least seven conventions that were expected to draw a total of 35,000 people were canceled in the days after the attacks. Economic losses were estimated at about $12 million. 

Hotels across California have seen some of the lowest occupancy rates in a decade and have moved quickly to lay off workers. About 25 percent of hotel union members in the state have been laid off and another 15 percent have had hours reduced, union officials said. 

In Santa Monica, nearly 200 people showed up this week at a relief center opened by the union representing hotel and restaurant workers. Volunteers helped workers apply for unemployment benefits and food stamps and distributed bags of groceries. 

Rhina Gonzalez and her husband, Cesar Perez, both lost their jobs as housekeepers in area hotels after Sept. 11. The two have four young children. 

“This is very scary for me,” she said. “I have to bring Christmas to my kids. I have to buy presents. I have to give them a nice Christmas, the same as other years, and I can’t.” 

Some economists predict the economic impact of the Sept. 11 attacks, while sharp, will be temporary. 

California still has about 200,000 more jobs today than it did at the same time last year and some jobs are expected to be created as the result of increased defense spending, said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, a Palo Alto research firm. 

Levy said that even if the state should lose 300,000 jobs — far more than even the most dire estimate to date — that would only result in an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent. 

While far higher than the all-time low unemployment rate of 4.5 percent reached earlier this year, it would be far less than the 9.7 percent in the early 1990s when the state lost more than 500,000 jobs in the last recession, Levy said. 

UNITED NATIONS — In an era of spreading global terrorism and widening conflict, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday for their roles at the “forefront of efforts to achieve peace and security in the world.” 

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, marking the centennial of the prize, said its choice was designed “to proclaim that the only negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations.” 

Annan said he was awakened in the early hours Friday by a phone call, which typically would have meant “something disastrous.” 

“But, of course,” he said, “it was a wonderful way to wake up.” 

“I think the timing couldn’t be better,” he told reporters who thronged his house on Manhattan’s tony east side. “I think it’s a great shot in the arm for us.” 

For an organization that has struggled financially and often been the target of vicious criticism, especially among conservative U.S. politicians, the award was a dizzying achievement. Delight spread among the 52,100 U.N. employees in offices and hotspots from Geneva and Lebanon to East Timor and Sierra Leone. 

In its citation, the Nobel committee said, with the Cold War done, the United Nations was finally playing its intended role “at the forefront of efforts to achieve peace and security in the world, and of the international mobilization aimed at meeting the world’s economic, social and environmental challenges.” 

The secretary-general, it said, “has been pre-eminent in bringing new life to the organization.” 

When Annan, a 63-year-old Ghanaian, became secretary-general in 1997 – the first leader to be elected from the ranks of U.N. staff – it was a time of turmoil, both inside and outside the organization. 

The United States had just blocked his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt from serving a second term, seeing him as anti-American. The United Nations had failed to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the July 1995 Serb slaughter of Muslims in a U.N.-declared “safe zone” in eastern Bosnia. 

Five years on and with Annan at the helm, the United Nations is playing major peacekeeping roles on many continents. At Annan’s urging, the 189 U.N. member states pledged to cut in half the number of people living on less than a dollar a day, to ensure primary education for every child, and to start reversing the AIDS epidemic – all by 2015. 

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the secretary-general has been galvanizing support for a global coalition to eliminate what he calls a scourge against humanity. He said Friday he expects that coalition to hold firm and become a key diplomatic player in sensitive Mideast peace negotiations. 

During his first term, Annan began overhauling the cumbersome and often lethargic U.N. bureaucracy, a key U.S. demand which led to settlement of a long dispute with Washington over the payment of U.N. dues. 

For the first time, Annan openly admitted past U.N. failures. 

He has won high marks for focusing the global spotlight on poverty, human rights abuses, Africa’s conflicts and the AIDS epidemic – and for his character and moral leadership. 

But he has also faced criticism for trying to negotiate with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and for standing by as U.N. peacekeepers were kidnapped in Sierra Leone. 

Nonetheless, he was unanimously reelected to a second term in June, six months before his first term expired at the end of this year. 

Created from the ashes of World War II by 51 nations as a shell-shocked world’s hope for peace, the United Nations remains the unique global gathering place for nations – rich and poor, large and small – to try to settle international problems. 

President Bush called Annan and told him “what a magnificent honor” it was to have won the 100th peace prize, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in Washington. 

Even Sen. Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican and longtime U.N critic who only recently made peace with the organization, praised the award. 

“I extend my heartiest congratulations to my friend, the distinguished secretary-general, Kofi Annan,” Helms said in a statement from Washington. “It’s significant that the secretary-general is being honored at a time when the world is gravely challenged in almost every respect.” 

That challenge was on Annan’s mind when he dedicated the award to the staff, and above all “to our colleagues who have made the supreme sacrifice in the service of humanity.” 

“The only true prize, for them and for us, will be peace itself,” he said. 

Nearly 200 U.N. humanitarian workers have been killed throughout the world in the past decade and 1,650 U.N. peacekeepers from 85 countries have died in the line of duty since 1948. 

After congratulating staff members who cheered him in the lobby of the landmark 39-story U.N. headquarters building, Annan urged them to return to their offices – to start working on the world organization’s next Nobel Peace Prize. 

For the soft-spoken secretary-general, the award marks the peak of a nearly 40-year career at the United Nations. 

He joined the organization in 1962 as an administrator with the World Health Organization in Geneva, and served in Africa, Europe, and New York in almost every area of the organization, from budget management to peacekeeping. 

U.N. agencies and people connected to it have won seven Nobel Peace Prizes, but this is the first to the world body itself. In 1961, Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold was awarded the prize posthumously after his death in a plane crash on a peace mission to Congo. 

The laureates were chosen on Sept. 28 and picked from a field of 136 nominees submitted before a Feb. 1 deadline. Last year, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung won for his reconciliation efforts with North Korea. 

Thirty-four past laureates were expected in Oslo for centennial celebrations leading up to the Dec. 10 awards ceremony. 

The prizes were created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in his will and are always presented on the anniversary of his death in 1896. 

The coveted peace award caps a week of Nobel announcements, starting Monday with the naming of medicine prize winners and followed by physics, chemistry, economics and literature. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Nobel site, http://www.nobel.se 

U.N. site, http://www.un.org 

A Berkeley woman, a member of Women in Black, contacted by the FBI in connection to the Sept. 11 attacks, compared looking to her organization for clues to the attackers, with looking for alligators in Montana. 

Kate Raphael tells the story this way: “I got home from work on Monday, Sept. 24 and there was a message on my voicemail from the San Francisco office of the FBI. They wanted to ask me questions, they wanted me to call them back. I didn’t want to do that.” 

An active member of Women in Black, Raphael describes the organization as an international network of mostly Jewish, mostly lesbian “feminist, anti-racist, anti-militarist” women who oppose the occupation of Palestine and the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.  

“We are opposed to all forms of war and extreme nationalism,” Raphael said. When they are demonstrating, members of the group wear black and stand in public places. 

Instead of returning the call, Raphael contacted National Lawyers Guild attorney Rachel Lederman who called back in her place. Lederman learned that Raphael was contacted because of her involvement with Women in Black. The bureau wanted to talk to her about the Sept. 11 attacks and find out who she might know in the Middle East. 

Raphael says the call mystified her. “It’s very puzzling to me and more puzzling as time goes on. I thought it was the beginning of a wave of calls.” But no other Women in Black activists have been contacted, to her knowledge. “That makes it more confusing to me,” she said. 

And she wonders why the FBI thinks her organization would be able to provide insight to Sept. 11.  

“If the FBI really believes that the Women in Black, a mostly Jewish feminist lesbian (group) would know about fundamentalist men in the Middle East,” that would be surprising, she said. “It’s like an alligator hunter going to Montana. It’s his job to know there are not alligators in Montana. It speaks really badly about (the FBI’s) ability to do their jobs. Women in Black are about as far away as you’re going to get. I ask myself, why me?” 

Raphael’s attorney said the FBI made a critical mistake. After Raphael was contacted and the message left on her answering machine and Lederman contacted the bureau informing them that she was Raphael’s attorney, the FBI should not have called Raphael back. They should have dealt solely with her, Lederman said. But they did call Raphael again, saying she would be subject to being subpoenaed by the Grand Jury in New York that is investigating the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Raphael says she thinks the Grand Jury has better things to do than to actually subpoena her. If they do, Lederman said they’ll go to federal court to have the subpoena quashed. “In general, no one is obliged to answer questions from the FBI unless ordered by the court,” Lederman said, adding that, if people are contacted by the FBI, they should talk to the National Lawyer’s Guild at 415-285-1055 to get help.  

“I’m not going to be intimidated,” Raphael said. 

On Oct. 17, 7-9 p.m., the Middle East Children’s Alliance is holding a forum called, “Know your rights,” geared to those people who may be called by the FBI. The forum will be held at St. Joseph the Worker’s Church at 1640 Addison St. 

The Berkeley Yellowjackets ran roughshod over Alameda on Friday night, racking up 482 rushing yards on the way to a 48-14 home victory. 

Senior tailback Germaine Baird led the attack with 184 yards and a touchdown on just 13 carries, his best output of the season. Backups Craig Hollis, Roger Mason and Mario Mejia also scored rushing touchdowns for the ’Jackets. 

Berkeley (2-3 overall, 2-0 ACCAL) won the game easily despite committing 190 yards worth of penalties, a large percentage of which were for unsportsmanlike conduct and other extra-curricular infractions. 

“I’d like to think this game was an anomaly,” Berkeley head coach Matt Bissell said of his team’s penalties. “We’ve had very few penalties until now. We told our players to be aggressive, but apparently we need to tell them when to not be too aggressive.” 

Berkeley penalties negated several big gains, including an interception return by safety Nick Schooler that looked like a touchdown. But Juleen Jacobs was called for roughing the passer on the play, negating the turnover. 

The ’Jackets ran up more yards in penalties than they allowed the Hornets to gain on offense. Alameda (2-3, 0-2 ACCAL) managed to gain just 183 yards, including just 29 on the ground. Berkeley’s linemen constantly knocked their opponents off the ball on both sides, although the offensive line was called for holding four times. 

“We definitely executed well today, running our plays right,” lineman Matt Toma said. “It just seemed like we would open a huge hole, the back would break downfield, and we’d look back and see a flag on the weak side. But we dominated the line of scrimmage tonight.” 

Early in the game, however, it was the Berkeley passing game that gave them a quick lead. Quarterback Raymond Pinkston connected for long touchdowns on his first two passes. The first came on the fourth play of the game’s opening drive, a 38-yard toss that wideout Lee Franklin came down with in a crowd. 

After Alameda’s first drive resulted in a loss of 19 yards, Berkeley got the ball back at midfield. Pinkston needed just three plays this time, hooking up with Sean Young down the left sideline for 44 yards and a score, and the ’Jackets were up 12-0 after just six minutes of play. 

“(Berkeley offensive coordinator Charles) Johnson told us their DBs couldn’t stay with us, so we went right after them,” Franklin said. 

Alameda’s next drive looked doomed as well, as two plays were stuffed and the Hornets faced third-and-17. But quarterback Tom Gay looked off Berkeley Schooler before finding Drew Kocal on a quick slant for 55 yards. That big play gave Alameda some life, and Gay found running back Jay Castro on an out pattern for a touchdown. 

Berkeley’s next drive stalled at the Alameda 29, and the Hornets marched down the field for another score. Gay connected on two passes, Castro picked up 17 yards on a draw, and Berkeley helped out with a 15-yard facemask penalty to put the Hornets on the two-yard line. Gay then hit Tavis Vee on a wide receiver screen for the touchdown, and the point after gave Alameda a 14-12 lead. 

But that would be the last time the Hornets scored, and Berkeley just started piling up the rushing yards. Running back Aaron Boatwright got the ball rolling with a 34-yard scamper on the following drive, and Baird put the ’Jackets ahead for good with an 8-yard touchdown sweep.  

Berkeley nearly scored again before halftime, as Franklin made a tremendous one-handed catch to put them inside the 20 with seven seconds left, but an attempted quarterback throwback was snuffed out by the Hornets, and Berkeley went into the locker room with a 20-14 lead. 

The ’Jackets headed into the second half roaring. After forcing a three-and-out by Alameda, Mason scored on a 34-yard run right up the middle, trucking over the last Hornet defender. The Hornets couldn’t pick up a first down on the next drive either, but a blocking in the back penalty on the Berkeley punt return put the ball on the Berkeley 8-yard line. The Berkeley coaches then used all their backfield weapons to break Alameda’s spirit, using five different runners on an eight-play, 92-yard drive that ended in a 14-yard touchdown for Hollis. 

“We blessed with a bunch of great athletes,” Johnson said. “We might even have too many good guys at running back. But they all understand that if they do their jobs, they’ll all get a chance.” 

Hollis, who finished the game with 96 yards on 11 carries, is a junior and has shown flashes of talent that could make him one of the regions top runners next year. Despite splitting his backup duties with Boatwright, Mason and Mejia, he is the front-runner to replace Baird as the main man next year. 

“Right now my job is just to back Germaine up,” Hollis said. “But next year should be my year.” 

Berkeley’s next score came on their lone passing play of the second half, a 62-yard bomb from Pinkston to Young as time ran out in the third quarter. Young has scored on three long plays in Berkeley’s last two games, and his coaches consider him to be one of the best deep threats in the league, a realization Young seems to finally be making himself. 

“I think I can keep doing this if I keep trying really hard,” the soft-spoken junior said. “Our passing game is going pretty good with me and Lee.” 

Mejia capped the scoring with a 35-yard run with four minutes left in the game. 

“We’re finally coming together as a team,” Pinkston said. “We’re like a family now. It’s all love.”

The City Council narrowly approved a controversial redistricting plan Tuesday that has moderate councilmembers accusing progressives of manipulating a census undercount to add an extra 4,500 students to District 8. 

The progressive council block – Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and councilmembers Dona Spring, Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington and Margaret Breland – acknowledged the imbalance in District 8, in the southeast section of the city. But they argued the chosen plan, drafted by two progressive residents, is the most consistent with the City Charter, which requires districts be redrawn to maintain the original districts that were drawn in 1986. 

The council approved the first reading of the new district lines by a vote of 5-4, with moderates Mayor Shirley Dean and  

councilmembers Polly Armstrong, Betty Olds and Miriam Hawley voting in opposition. The council will vote on the second reading of the new boundaries at next Tuesday’s meeting. If the council approves the second reading, the new boundaries will go into effect 30 days later. 

Moderates contend the approved plan was designed to weaken Armstrong’s popularity, by using the census undercount to put a large number of students, who are inclined to vote progressive, in her district. 

Progressives argued that the staff-produced plan, known as Scenario 5, that moderates preferred, would have weakened Worthington in District 7, by breaking up the Bateman neighborhood, a stronghold of support for him. 

The two council factions argued bitterly prior to voting on the plan, drafted by Michael O’Malley and David Blake. Blake is a former aide to Maio.  

Moderates suggested that a progressive-forged “back-room deal” during a meeting the day before the plan’s initial approval on Oct. 2.  

“Moderate councilmembers ought to reflect very carefully about the perception of this plan,” Dean said. “It needs to be fixed otherwise (the council) will forever be suspect.” 

Progressive councilmembers, which have a majority on the nine-member council, argued the plan is consistent with the City Charter and that moderate charges are baseless and the result of sour grapes because the plan they favored was not approved. 

“The moderates have been screaming bloody murder and foul play because students were redistricted into District 8 instead of homeowners,” Spring said. “This is the only plan that creates districts where no incumbent councilmember, progressive or moderate, is prejudicially favored to be removed from office.” 

The bitter conflict is largely due to what city officials estimate to be an undercount of 4,500 people - mostly students - by the 2000 U.S. Census. The undercount primarily occurred in districts 7 and 8.  

Despite solid evidence of the census blunder, the City Charter requires the council to redraw district lines so that each of the city’s nine districts have equal populations based on the current census whether it’s flawed or not.  

So, based on the census, the new council districts have close to 12,800 residents in accordance with the City Charter. But “real” numbers, based on the 1990 U.S. Census and the UC Housing Office, suggest that District 8 far exceeds the other seven districts with a total of 17,100 residents, of which 55 percent or 9,700 are students. 

Further complicating the issue, the city is currently disputing the official count with the U.S. Census Bureau and if the count is adjusted to reflect the actual population, the charter would require the council to scrap the approved plan, which has inspired the worst acrimony between the two council factions is recent years, and begin the redistricting process anew. 

Prior to the vote, Armstrong, who represents District 8, wanted to make sure the record reflected the new plan’s defiance of the intention of the charter by creating a population imbalance. 

“This plan goes in with eyes wide open, understanding (the progressives) have moved 5,000 (Armstrong’s estimate) extra people into District 8,” she said. “I want to make it clear that District 8 will have 5,000 more people when the dust clears.” 

Also prior to the vote, Maio said she was troubled by the population imbalance but chose to support the progressive plan and called the moderates’ charges of a back-room deal a “red herring.”  

“I felt very supportive of (the progressives’) issue because they have been very supportive of issues that matter a lot to me,” she said and then added. “I do acknowledge that approved plan puts a larger number of people into Polly Armstrong’s district.” 

In an Oct. 12 press release, Maio said the approved plan is the best plan given the restraints of the charter because it does not distort existing boundary lines and does not create a disadvantage for any sitting councilmember.  

Maio said she supports redrawing the district lines if the census is corrected to reflect the actual populations in districts 7 and 8. 

“We may be embroiled in another redistricting debate in just a few months,” she said. “Something to look forward to!”

Cal women win Pac-10 opener 

The Cal women’s soccer team got back to their winning ways on Friday, beating Oregon 3-0 in the Pac-10 opener for each team at Pape Field in Eugene. 

The Bears improved to 9-2-1, 1-0-0 in the conference while Oregon drops to 6-3-1 and 0-1-0.  

Cal scored its first goal on a 20-yard shot from Brittany Kirk in the 10th minute on an assist from Kassie Doubrava.  

Despite the field position being equal for much of the game, the Bears added a second goal in the 54th minute by All-American Laura Schott, who ranks 16th in the nation in goals.  

The Ducks gave up the match’s final score to Doubrava in the 65th minute on an assist from Kirk.  

Field hockey falls to Kent St. 

KENT, Ohio - No. 14 Kent State broke a 1-1 deadlock with two second-half goals to defeat No. 20 California, 3-1, Oct. 11 at Dix Stadium. Junior Megan Spurling scored two goals to lift the Golden Flashes to their fourth straight victory.  

The first half scoring started quickly. Spurling rebounded her own saved shot and put it in the back of the net at 32:18. Cal (6-4) quickly answered when it converted on one of its two penalty corners of the night. Danya Sawyer controlled Nora Fedderson’s saved shot and scored the first goal of her career with 21:50 left in the first half.  

In the second period, Kent State (7-5) converted on a direct corner. Junior Helen scored with assists from sophomore Arlette van Cleeff and junior Kristen at 20:28. Spurling ended the scoring on a 2-on-1 break with van Cleeff.  

Junior keeper Emily Rowlen made five saves against three goals allowed before being relieved by freshman Kelly Knapp with 10:43 left in the game. Knapp made two saves on the night. The Golden Flashes had 12 penalty corner chances compared to two for Cal.  

The Bears travel down state to visit Ohio State on Saturday at 1 p.m. 

No. 5 UCLA downs Bears 

LOS ANGELES, CA - The University of California women’s volleyball team (5-8, 1-5) lost to No. 5 ranked UCLA (10-3, 5-3), 3-0 (31-29, 30-12, 30-21), Friday evening at Pauley Pavilion. The Bears, who have never defeated the Bruins in women’s volleyball (0-41), were led by freshman Mia Jerkov’s 12 kills, while sophomore Gabrielle Abernathy added 11 kills and a .300 hitting percentage, and junior Reena Pardiwala had a team-high 14 digs.  

UCLA was led by senior Kristee Porter’s 20 kills and .500 hitting percentage (20 kills, four errors, 32 attempts).

Early on Oct. 20, 1991, John Traugott was finishing up a morning run in the Berkeley hills. The UC Berkeley English professor was rounding a curve a few blocks from his house when he noticed the eastern sky turning orange.  

Traugott had seen that same orange sky in 1970, when a wildfire devastated the East Bay hills.  

“I immediately knew what it was,” Traugott said. “And I knew the whole place was going to go.” 

The firestorm he saw would eventually raze his home on Alvarado Road and more than 3,000 others in Oakland and Berkeley. The concrete of Traugott’s patio turned to dust. Heavy iron cooking pots melted into mush.  

But perhaps most painful to Traugott, he lost two manuscripts of unfinished books that he had spent years creating. He has spent the last 10 years trying to create them again.  

The firestorm of 1991 wrenched many things from its victims. Thousands lost their homes, dozens lost their lives. But for many of the artists, writers, photographers and academics who populated the hills of the East Bay, they say the loss that truly broke their hearts was their work.  

On that morning, Traugott felt paralyzed by the enormity of the fire and the impossible decisions it demanded.  

“I was wondering what to do,” he said. “I couldn’t think of what to take out. So I just sat there.” 

Traugott was alone – his wife Elizabeth was in Chicago. Unable to react, he sat in his kitchen for about a half-hour, munching toast and drinking coffee, watching the orange sky grow darker. Distraught and disoriented, he finally managed pull himself out of his funk enough to do something.  

“I decided I’d get a suitcase and put something in it,” he recalled. “Then I went downhill to the Claremont hotel, and I opened up the suitcase and there wasn’t anything in it. I forgot to put anything in it – I was totally confused.” 

Eventually, he thought to retrieve the computer he said contained the two manuscripts – a book of essays on Jonathan Swift and a book about 18th century writers Samuel Richardson and Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. He walked back through the bushes, grabbed the computer and put it in his car before the house burned.  

But the computer was full of smoke, which can destroy the data inside. He later took it to a specialist who tried to salvage it, but who actually did more damage to it, Traugott said. By then, there was nothing left of the manuscripts.  

“They’re both gone,” he said. “I couldn’t go back and redo the research – I just didn’t have the energy at that point. So these two books are being rewritten from the top of my head, totally.” 

But Traugott, age 70, said he wonders whether he will ever finish the work.  

“I’m trying to finish it, but it goes so slowly. There are times when I can’t work on the books, because, I don’t know, I’ve done it before. It’s so fatiguing to try and recover these things.” 

*** 

For others in the Berkeley Hills, remaking what was lost was never even an option.  

Nancy Pollack, a painter and sculptor, had been in Hawaii when the fire hit. She lost a life’s worth of work when her house on Gravatt Drive burned. Strangely, Pollack, a self-professed packrat, felt the loss as a sort of liberation.  

“I never cried,” she said. “And I’m so emotional – I cry at everything.” 

Since there was no way remake years of original art, Pollock said she took the opportunity to start anew.  

“I said, gee, I can be anything I want. I don’t have a past,” she said. “I thought, maybe I won’t even have some of the same challenges. Maybe I won’t have trouble with the right-hand corner of my paintings any more.” 

Among her first projects after the fire, Pollock took the few items still recognizable after the blaze and worked them into sculptures: a set of blackened silverware mounted on a bronze-colored base, shards of clay pots arranged around an odd deck of cards that miraculously survived.  

“I don’t take myself that seriously anymore, because hey, poof, it’s gone,” she said.  

*** 

Jeremy Larner, a novelist, poet and Oscar-winning screenwriter who lived on Grand View Drive, drove to safety with his computer. In the confusion of the moment, Larner had grabbed not just the hard disk containing eight years of work, but made several trips to get the heavy computer components.  

“It’s interesting what you take when you run out of your house,” he said. “It was ridiculous for me to carry out my computer printer.” 

What he did not think to grab were 30 years worth of notebooks and a filing cabinet containing two manuscripts, including an unpublished novel. But, like Pollock, he said he felt almost unburdened by the loss.  

“The funny thing is that I was relieved,” he said. “I never missed them. Whatever was in those notebooks belonged to somebody I no longer was.”  

Larner would later write about going back to where his house had stood, and finding the filing cabinet: 

“Inside, I see a miracle – a sheaf of papers. I see letters, print – the lost manuscripts! I strain against the metal till I can wedge my hand inside. And the pages turn to dust in my fingers.” 

In the last ten years, many fire victims have rebuilt their houses and their lost work. John Traugott’s once-verdant backyard had been reduced to cinders, but now it blooms again, complete with towering redwood trees that have grown entirely since the fire.  

“It all came back,” said Traugott. “That’s been the most satisfying thing about the recovery. Ashes are good for growing.” 

The Library Gardens development, a five-building, 176-unit residential complex to be built behind the Berkeley Public Library, was approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board Thursday night. 

The project is the latest, but certainly not the last, of the major housing projects planned for the downtown area.  

A number of developers have recently set their sights on downtown – currently, there are at least four mid-sized to large housing developments apart from Library Gardens working their way through the city’s planning and permits process, for a total of 267 new apartments and condominiums. 

The rush to downtown seems to come in anticipation of the city’s new General Plan, which, if it is approved as expected next month, will place an emphasis on new housing construction in the center of the city. 

John DeClercq, senior vice president of TransAction Companies, which led the Library Gardens project, didn’t get the “9-0” vote he had hoped for from the ZAB, but he did come close. The board voted 7-1 on the project, with board member Carrie Sprague dissenting and board member Lawrence Capitelli absent. 

Sprague did have praise for Library Gardens’ “clever design,” but she said on Friday that out of concern for the neighborhood, she could not countenance the project’s intensive construction schedule. 

“They were very insistent that they wanted to work all day,” she said. “That’s the main thing I was worried about.” 

Library Gardens, with its 134,000 square feet of new floor space, is the largest housing development in Berkeley in recent memory. But it appears that much more is soon to follow in the downtown area, with the result that the economic and social dynamics of the city may be dramatically altered. 

The final draft of the Berkeley General Plan (July, 2001) calls for an increase in housing downtown in response to two needs: the housing crisis in the city and the Bay Area, and the ongoing revitalization of downtown. 

Steve Barton, director of the city’s Housing Department, said on Friday that he was pleased with the approval of Library Gardens, and that he looked forward to similar projects. Too often, he said, people want affordable housing but do not want either sprawl or greater density in urban areas. 

“People are in favor of housing in the abstract, but not in any particular place,” he said. “So it’s nice that in Berkeley there’s a general consensus to build new housing downtown.” 

Barton said that the housing crisis threatened the very character of the city, and that increased housing supply was one of the only ways that Berkeley could preserve its culture.  

“Often people here are not making as much money as they could if they wanted to,” he said. “People in Berkeley choose to work in research, or for a nonprofit, or in the arts, etc. That’s Berkeley’s role in the Bay Area, and if rents are not affordable, it is threatened.” 

The draft General Plan emphasizes residential development in the downtown partly because it well-served by mass transportation and partly because it could contribute to the area’s renaissance. Shattuck Avenue was once the unequivocal center of the city, but in the 1980’s it was injured, like many downtowns, by the nationwide exodus of people and business to the suburbs. 

Though revitalization programs in the 1990’s have been partly successful, the area still has not recovered its former glory. The downtown accounts for only 10 percent of all retail sales in the city – a figure equivalent to that of Telegraph Avenue, and dwarfed by West Berkeley’s 50 percent. 

Now, the hope is to invigorate the downtown by moving more people into the neighborhood. In the words of the Downtown Berkeley Association, “new permanent housing will increase street life, pedestrian traffic and a sense of community... and will generate increased demand for retail businesses – some of which are currently unavailable in the downtown.” 

If new residents are brought in, the thinking goes, new commercial and retail space will follow. The plan is reminiscent of Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland’s pledge to bring in 10,000 new residents to revitalize the downtown of his city. 

Though the plan does enjoy widespread support, some people are beginning to voice their concerns. 

Carrie Olson, a long-time Berkeley resident and a member of the city’s Design Review Committee, said Friday that she wants to make sure that the diversity of downtown is preserved. 

“I want the growth to be sensible,” she said. “I want to have a mixed community in the downtown, a community that represents Berkeley as a whole.” 

Olson said that the Design Review Committee recently gave the ZAB an unfavorable report on one of the larger new projects being proposed for downtown. The units in the building were too small to support families or older couples, who usually want more living space than students. 

“If we end up with just students downtown, we will get another version of Telegraph Avenue,” she said. “Some of the new projects may not do their best to discourage that.” 

Olson said she was somewhat suspicious of the notion that increased housing would necessarily bring more retail opportunities, or more liveliness generally, to the downtown.  

“What works about a successful urban space – like some parts of Paris – is that you can go downstairs, out on the street and find what you need to cook dinner,” she said. “That doesn’t exist in the downtown right now.” 

“Part of the city’s responsibility is to make sure those services – grocery stores, laundries, drug stores, all the things you need for daily life – will be there.” 

But Victoria Eisen, the principal planner for the Association of Bay Area Governments’ Smart Growth Strategy project, said that Berkeley’s strategy to promote housing downtown fits perfectly with the vision of “Smart Growth” her group is developing. 

“It’s true that when people move into these units right now, there may be not be a supermarket you can walk to,” she said. “What Berkeley and other communities are doing is to bring in residents to support existing services, and hopefully attract new services.”

An apparent misquote thrust Berkeley – once again – into the national spotlight on Wednesday when the a Wall Street Journal Web site columnist attacked Councilmember Dona Spring for anti-war comments that she says were falsely attributed to her. 

At a press conference Thursday, Spring said she was misquoted in an article that appeared in the Daily Californian on Oct. 10. as saying “The United States is now a terrorist nation. According to the Taliban, (the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan) are terrorist attacks.”  

“I never denounced or condemned the United States,” Spring said at Thursday’s press conference. “I believe what I was trying to say was that U.S. bombing must seem like a terrorist attack to the innocent people in Afghanistan.” 

Spring received hundreds of e-mails from around the country Wednesday after a columnist for the Wall Street Journal’s Web site, James Taranto, denounced Spring’s “misquote” as “idiotic” under the heading “Berkeley’s useless idiots.”  

At Spring’s request, Taranto included a clarification letter written by Spring in his Thursday column. The Daily Californian, an independent student newspaper at UC Berkeley, also printed a letter from Spring clarifying her comments on Thursday.  

Spring asked Daily Californian Editor Janny Hu for a correction, but Hu said, after reviewing the reporter’s notes, she was standing by the quotes as printed. 

According to Mayor Shirley Dean’s executive assistant Tamlyn Bright, Dean received nearly 200 hostile e-mails from all over the country in response to the Wall Street Journal Web site column.  

Last month, Dean’s office was besieged by telephone calls after conservative radio talk show host, G. Gordon Liddy, broadcast the mayor’s office telephone number to his estimated 9 million listeners after criticizing Berkeley for temporarily removing the American flags from all fire department vehicles during a protest.  

Wednesday’s renewed national attention spurred Dean to quickly send out press releases denouncing Spring’s attributed comments in the Daily Californian. According to the release, Dean and her three moderate colleagues, councilmembers Polly Armstrong, Betty Olds and Miriam Hawley disagree with Spring’s “action and words.” 

The press release also referred to a resolution the council majority had attempted to pass last week. 

Spring had tried to put an emergency item on the council’s agenda Tuesday, which, if approved, would have had the city send letters to Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Rep. Barbara Lee and President George Bush asking them to do whatever possible to end the bombing of Afghanistan. The resolution further called for the council meeting to be adjourned “in memory of their innocent civilians in Afghanistan being harmed and made refugees due to the bombing.” 

The nine-member council failed to put the emergency item on the agenda. To add an emergency item to a agenda requires six votes – the council voted in favor of the resolution 5-4. The item will appear on next week’s council agenda. Because the item will not have emergency status at the next meeting, it will require only five votes for approval. 

Spring said she is rewording the item so that it is more sensitive to Americans who lost their lives in terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. 

In her press statement, the mayor said she and her three colleagues were “saddened that five members of the City Council would bring this issue to the council and use such inflammatory language.” It went on to say “that this is a time for reflection and more thoughtful responses and not for inflammatory rhetoric from the 60s.” 

At the press conference, Spring countered that it was irresponsible of Dean to reprint the misquote in her press release. Spring, who supports the dismantling of the Taliban, said that her resolution is only meant to express concern for innocent Afghanis who will die as a result of the American bombing. Spring added that since Sept. 11, Berkeley has unfairly become a “whipping boy” for the more conservative corporate media. 

“Anyone who questions the war effort is attacked mercilessly,” Spring said. “The hysteria is so great we are not able to have rationale debate.” 

Friday, Oct. 12

Will Star Wars Make Us Safe 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Redwood Gardens 

2951 Derby St. 

Panel of speakers will discuss President Bush’s proposed Missile Defense Program. The public is invited to contribute to this discussion. Sponsored by Women for Peace. 849-3020  

Saturday, Oct. 13

Shelter Operations 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar St. 

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Neighborhood Parents Network 

10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

College Avenue Presbyterian Church 

5951 College Ave. 

North Oakland and Berkeley Area Preschool Panel Discussion and Fair. School representatives will discuss the differing philosophical and theoretical thoughts of varying preschool models. $10, $5 for NPN members. 527-6667 www.parentsnet.org 

Optimal Fertility with  

Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine 

1 - 4 p.m. 

Berkeley Adult School 

1222 University Ave.  

This workshop will explore how Chinese medicine works to improve fertility, and how acupuncture, herbs and nutrition can be combined with Western fertility treatments, including IVF. $25, advance registration required. 595-1175 

Farmers’ Market Fall  

Fruit Tasting 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center St and Martin Luther King Way 

Free samples the whole range of fall fruit. There will be a wide variety of apples, pears and persimmons at a central location for taste-testing. 

548-3333 

Pow Wow and Indian Market 

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Enjoy Native American foods, dancing and arts & crafts in Berkeley’s tenth annual Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration, this year honoring Mille Ketchesawno. 595-5520 

Optics Fair 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Explore the world of the unseen at the first-ever LHS Optics Fair featuring a variety of microscopes, binoculars, and hand lenses to try out and compare. Parents, teachers and children age 6 and up. 642-5132 

Sunday, Oct. 14

Donna Lerew’s 70th Birthday Concert 

8 p.m. 

Unitarian Universalist Church  

One Lawson Rd., Kensington 

The distinguished Bay Area violinist celebrates her 70th birthday with a retrospective concert featuring Musica Viva String Quartet and Rose Trio. $10. Free parking. 525-0302 

Judaism and Christianity:  

Facing the Facts 

10 a.m. - 1 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Explore the history of the Jewish-Christian experience with Rabbi Shelly Waldenberg, teacher of Jewish Studies at Holy Names College and local Catholic High Schools. $10 public, $5 members. 548-0237 

Monday, Oct. 15

Rite of Christian Initiation  

for Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask. 526-4811 

Emergency Preparedness  

Workshop 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Anna Swardenski speaks to help seniors and people with disabilities be more prepared in case of an emergency. 

Franciscanism, Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Interfaith Couples Look  

at Love and Choices 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

Two films to stimulate discussion about interfaith families, love and identity. $25 per couple. 548-0237 

Tuesday, Oct. 16 

Crabby Chef Competition 

4 p.m. 

Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto 

1919 Fourth St.  

Top East Bay chefs compete to create the best crab dish. Free.  

5 - 7 p.m. Fund-raising Reception for the Visual and Performing Arts Group of Berkeley High School. $25 donation. 845-7777 

Similarities between Jewish  

\and Deadhead Spirituality 

7:30 - 9 p.m. 

Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center 

1414 Walnut St.  

It’s been observed that a disproportionate number of deadheads are Jews. Dr. Leora Lawton, researcher of deadhead culture, explores the fascinating parallels between Jewish and deadhead rituals. $25 public, $15 members. 548-0237 

The Berkeley Garden Club 

2:15 p.m. 

Epworth United Methodist Church 

1953 Hopkins St.  

“Yearlong Garden Color with Bulbs” with Retired Director, Regional Botanic Gardens, Wayne Roderick. The program includes slides of flowering bulbs ideally suited to the East Bay climate. 524-4374 bgardenclub@aol.com 

Fibromyalgia Support Group 

noon - 2 p.m. 

Alta Bates Medical Center 

Maffly Auditorium - Herrick Campus 

2001 Dwight way 

“Herbal Alternatives and Drug Interactions for Fibromyalgia.” 601-0550 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 

548-3333 

Berkeley Camera Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda 

Share your slides and prints with other photographers. Critiques by qualified judges. Monthly field trips. 

531-8664 

Free Early Music Group 

10 - 11:30 a.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave. 

Small group sings madrigals and other voice harmony every Tuesday.  

655-8863 

Israel and Palestine: Why the Oslo Peace Process Failed 

7:30 p.m. 

La Pena 

3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Speaker Joel Beinin is a Professor of Middle East History at Stanford University: “The Oslo Declaration of Principles... was supposed to bring peace and stability to the Middle East... the entire region is more unstable than a decade ago. Why have the hopes of so many people for a just peace been disappointed?” He will also address the relationship between U. S. policy, the Arab-Israel conflict, and events of this kind. 863-6637 

Editor: 

A second wave of terrorism is occurring in America.  

Bigotry and hatred have been unleashed against Americans of Arab, Islamic, South Asian and even Native American heritage, leaving many who look or dress differently from most white Americans afraid to leave home.  

As third generation Japanese Americans we feel a deep sense of obligation to speak out in support of Arab American community in light of the violence and hate messages being directed at them.  

We know what it is like to be the target of such feelings. In the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were, our parents, friends and many of us, were incarcerated during World War II. Over two-thirds were American citizens by birth and over one-half were children. All were prisoners of war.  

Many of us carry lasting psychological and emotional effects. That is why we know this must never happen again to another group of people.  

We Americans, who strongly believe in freedom, justice and liberty for all, must not allow violence and discrimination to fall blindly on the Muslim and Arab American communities or on anyone who only looks “different” or “like the enemy.” 

Let us learn from our past. We urge everyone to take some overt action to show acceptance and support for the Muslim and Arab American communities. What can you do? 

1. Speak out whenever see an act of bigotry or hatred.  

2. Reach out to Muslims and others in your community. 

3. Urge your legislative leaders to protect the rights of Americans and immigrants.  

4. Become the person you would want to have standing up for you if such acts were directed against you.  

Members, Sansei Legacy Project: 

Sharon Senzaki, San Francisco 

Rich Tatsuo Nagaoka, St. Helena 

Dr. Kay Yatabe, El Cerrito 

Fumi Knox, Oakland 

Marion Hironaka Cowee, Albany  

Pat & Matthew Shiono, San Francisco 

Joyce Yamada, Pinole 

Carl Mune, Fremont 

Dale Komai, Mill Valley 

Grace Morizawa, Berkeley 

Marjorie Fujioka, Berkeley 

Jane Watanabe, San Francisco 

Marla Kamiya 

Carl Mune, Fremont 

Eugene Fujimoto 

Perhaps there was a time when a person could see a dollar earned and a dollar spent. Maybe, once, money could have been regarded as credit for goods or services rendered. Even if currency was ever that simple the markets today have complicated that a hundredfold. 

“Open Outcry” is a documentary by Jon Else about esoteric trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the abstract market gymnastics a dollar is put through, and, ironically, the visceral thrill of traders throwing themselves bodily into economic theory. 

The video, which will be broadcast on KQED-TV Friday at 11 p.m. and repeated Sunday at 6 p.m., is shot in the futures pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. For the economically ignorant, a future is a contract to buy a certain amount of goods on a certain date at a certain price. For example, cattle. Beef can be bought in advance, then that futures contract can be traded over and over until the date of delivery.  

Of course, the traders on the floor are interested in trading, not delivery, of beef. You will never see a cow in the cattle futures pit, only people frantically yelling numbers at each other. 

Jon Else, the head of the documentary program at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism, admitted that he knows “less than the average person about capital markets,” and that “Open Outcry” is not a primer to how markets operate, but rather a peek into the experience of capitalism. Because unless you look very closely and very carefully, capitalism can look like chaos. 

With hundreds of people wearing colored jacket smocks crammed in a space about the size of a tennis court, each gesticulating wildly and screaming out numbers, the futures pits appear to be a lawless melee. But there is a system, and Else’s camera seems to be working on the assumption that if you look at something long enough, eventually you’ll figure out what’s going on. 

Capital markets would not be too difficult to understand if futures trading were limited to hamburger beef, and such things a person could physically touch. The trouble comes in trading intangibles like interest rates, or rates of interest rate change differentials.  

“When they get into things like trading options on futures on Eurodollars, which are in fact interest rates on currency held outside the United States, I have to check out,” said Else. “That’s not a hamburger to me. That goes somewhere into a world that’s way, way beyond hamburgers.” 

The 50-minute film is made up of 10 long camera shots (actually, 11 shots if you look for the hidden edit), each between 10 and 15 minutes long. Considering the average sustained camera shot in a typical TV sitcom is roughly three seconds, these marathon shots panning the active pits are both a meditation on money and a nearly scientific observation of group activity.  

“All of the skills that those traders use are cave man skills,” said Else. “Who can do lightening-fast calculations in their head? Who has a loud voice? Who is tall? Who has sharp elbows? Who has physical strength and agility? Who has the ability to stand on their feet without taking a leek for six hours at a time? There are not a lot of places in life to test all those evolutionary skills every day. I think that’s part of the attraction.” 

The apparent irony is the way the film shows us the traders on the floor going through physically grueling all-day combat for split-second trades on items that only exist in theory. Of course part of the attraction is the enormous amount of money that can potentially be made on the floor, but in the heat of the trading frenzy we can see how money can slip loose from the idea of credit for goods and services to become a factor manipulated by the trading process. 

“Actually, I went in kind of cynical,” said Else about how he first approached the Chicago Mercantile Exchange as a documentary subject. “I went in with a vague sense that the capital markets in general and the stock markets were somehow tainted with evil, that somehow their only reason for being was for rich people to get richer. With that particular market, I came away with the impression that that was distinctly not true.” 

Although the documentary does not explain for the layperson how trading works it does raise the cultural question of what is the nature of money as a social and political force. Through voice-over we hear traders postulating that money is fascistic in that it adamantly seeks its own stability. Or, that money is essentially democratic, and handling it in these markets is not dependent on race or creed or background. 

“I sort of looked for a way to poke a hole in that argument, in my own mind,” said Else. “But looking at the floor, there, I couldn’t. Money really is, for better or worse, blind. Money is always looking for the highest return, like a very aggressive piece of DNA.” 

By the end, the idea money has lifted itself off of dead presidents and become like a biological force of nature. The control of markets, or when markets go out of control, assumes the tricky ethical dilemma of Dr. Frankenstein.

924 Gilman Street Oct 12: One Line Drawing, Funeral Dinner, Diefenbaker, Till 7 Years Pass Over Him; Oct 13: Dead and Gone, Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Wormwood, Antagony; Most shows are $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Ashkenaz Oct 12: Sambo NGO; Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 14: Open Stage; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Blakes Oct. 12: !Tang, Roux, $6; Oct. 13: Ten Ton Chicken, Blue Tulip, $5; Oct. 14: Ted Ekman Solo & Band, $5; Oct. 15: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 16: Black Dog Band featuring Peanut McDaniels, $4; Oct. 17: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 18: Ascension, $5; Oct. 19: King Harvest, Sfunk, $5; Oct. 20: Psychokinetics, $5; Oct. 22: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 23: Felice, $3; Oct. 24: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; Oct. 25: Psychotica, $5; Oct. 26: Planting Seeds, $6; Oct. 27: Felonious, $6; Oct. 29: The Steve Gannon Band and Mz. Dee, $4; Oct. 31: Erotic City, DJ Maestro, $2; All shows 9:30 p.m. 2367 Telegraph Ave. 848-0886 

Cal Performances Oct. 12 - 14: Fri. and Sat., 8:00 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Ballet Nacional De Cuba, $24 - $46; Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Jupiter Oct. 12: Japonize Elephants; Oct. 13: J Dogs; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

Live Oak Concerts Oct. 14: A Harvest of Song, an evening of premiers of works, $8-10. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Rebecca Riots Oct. 12: 7:30 p.m. $20-23. Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 339-1832 

Synchronicity Oct. 14: 2 p.m. Piano and percussion duo fuses classical and jazz music into a visual experience. $10 adult, $5 child. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, D$10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Faye Sings Lady Day” Oct. 13: 8 p.m. & 10 p.m., Benefit concert for the Black Repertory Group in Berkeley. $10 - $15. Black Repertory Group, 3201 Adeline St. 849-9940  

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Oct. 12-19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Loaded Visions” Oct. 17: 8 p.m. Experimental short films by Antero Alli (Eight Videopoems and “Lilly in Limbo,” $5 - $10 sliding scale. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 464-4640 www.verticalpool.com 

Pacific Film Archive Theater Oct. 12: 7 p.m., Hiroshima mon amour; 9 p.m., India Song; Oct. 13: 3:30 p.m., Films of Fritz Lang: Discussions with Anton Kaes; 7 p.m., The Nibelungen: Siegfried’s Death; Oct. 14: 3:30 p.m., L’Atalante; 5:30 p.m., The Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge; Oct. 15: 7 p.m., Genesis; Oct. 16: 7:30 p.m., La Région centrale; Oct. 17: 7:30 p.m., Video in the Villages and Amazonian Trilogy; 2575 Bancroft Way, 642-1124 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Exhibits 

“Inside Editions” through Oct. 12: Nine printmakers exhibit their work. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tue. - Fri. Free. Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 kala@kala.org 

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” through Oct. 13; Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Asian Pacific Islander American artists in roughly the demographic proportions indicated by the recent census. Free. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9470  

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“Cut Plates and Bowls” Annabeth Rosen, “Just Jars” Sandy Simon, Oct. 13 through Nov. 3; Saturdays 10 - 5 or by appointment. Trax Ceramic Gallery, 1306 3rd St. 526-0279. cone5@aol.com 

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“Musee des Hommages” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Readings 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 12: Susan Gaines reads from her novel “Carbon Dream”; Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 12: Cody’s For Kids- Rosemary Wells and Bunny Party; Harruet Lerber surveys “The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You’re Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted Betrayed or Desperate; Michael Chabon talks about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; Studs Terkel reads from “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and hunger for Faith; Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 12: Elizabeth Royte examines “The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rainforest”; Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 13: Leonard Chang reads from “Over the Shoulder”; Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Susan Griffin Oct. 12: 7 - 10 p.m. Presents slide show and discusses her latest book “The Book of Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues”. $10 refundable with book purchase. Gaia Arts and Cultural Center, 2116 Allston Way 848-4242  

Tours 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Museums 

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. A 20 foot by 40 foot replica of the fearsome dinosaur made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

Coming off of their toughest league match of the season, the Berkeley Yellowjackets resumed their demolishing of the ACCAL with a 15-6, 15-12, 15-3 win over El Cerrito. 

After winning a tense, five-game match against Encinal on Tuesday, Thursday’s game was a reminder of just how dominant the ’Jackets can be. They completely dominated the net, even when star middle blocker Desiree Guilliard-Young was in the back row. Opposite hitter Amalia Jarvis led the team with six kills, Guilliard-Young had five kills and fellow middle blocker Vanessa Williams had three to go with two blocks and three aces. 

A pleasant surprise for the ’Jackets (6-0 ACCAL) was the play of backup setter Emily Friedman. The senior had been lobbying for more playing time at other positions, and Berkeley head coach Justin Caraway finally gave in and let her play defensive specialist on Thursday against the Gauchos (4-2 ACCAL). Friedman answered the call with 10 digs and eight assists, splitting time between the two positions. 

“Emily did a really good job of stepping into a new position,” Caraway said. “She showed she can play in different spots.” 

Berkeley came roaring out of the gate for the first game, recording nine kills, nine digs and three aces to take a quick lead. They also dominated the third and final game of the match, with Guilliard-Young making three kills. 

The only rough patch the ’Jackets went through was in the second game, but Caraway refused to blame Tuesday’s drama for the bad game. 

“If we were going to have a letdown today, it should have come right away in the first game out,” Caraway said. “We just didn’t pass very well, and our mental focus was non-existent.” 

Caraway can afford to be hyper-critical of his team given their dominance of the ACCAL. In fact, he is almost forced to focus on the bad stretches rather than the good, since Encinal is the only league team to take a game from Caraway’s squad this season. Unless Encinal can manage to win the rematch later this year, the ’Jackets will almost surely have their second straight undefeated ACCAL season. 

“We’re focusing on having Encinal at home and getting ready for the Northgate/Acalanes tournament in a couple of weeks,” said Caraway, who has scheduled several tough tournaments for his team to compensate for the lack of competition in league play. 

The ’Jackets next face an away match at De Anza on Tuesday.

Berkeley High School Principal Frank Lynch will leave Berkeley to become superintendent of the Del Norte County Unified School District, perhaps as soon as Nov. 1. 

In a phone interview at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Barbara Williams, executive secretary to the Del Norte County board, said the school board vote in Lynch’s favor was unanimous. Williams added that a Nov. 1 start date was possible, but unconfirmed.  

Lynch was in Crescent City on Thursday to attend the board meeting. Earlier in the day, Berkeley Superintendent Michele Lawrence described his departure as “pretty firm.” 

“Certainly he will be missed,” Lawrence said. “I think in his time he helped heal the school, and helped begin its recovery, and I’m much appreciative of that.” 

School Board President Terry Doran said the board and the superintendent had been preparing for the possibility of Lynch’s departure since he announced he had applied for another job in August. 

“We feel we’re prepared to have an administrative structure at the school that will allow the school to function well and complete the WASC process,” Doran said, referring to the accreditation board, which will re-evaluate Berkeley High next fall.  

Lynch began work at the district on Aug. 8, 2000.

Editor: 

In 1950 a transfixed nation watched Senator Joseph McCarthy wave a list of “known Communists and their sympathizers.” The list was never divulged publicly, though those at political or social odds with the Senator were successively fingered, and their lives ruined, as so too were many of their acquaintances. 

Today we're offered a list headed by Osama Bin Laden, a man declaring hatred of our country's policies and encouraging the use of deplorable tactics against us. His admitted role in training the killers of eighteen U.S. servicemen in Somalia makes him a convenient and deserving target of our wrath. Of concern in charging him in the latest attacks, however, is that we're shown evidence only that Bin Laden applauded them, and, may have met a couple of the terrorists. Our government's claim that we have stronger, unrevealed, evidence against him doesn't hold water. Were the security of either an informant or our technology actually the issue, our search for Bin Laden would have been both short and successful. 

The reality is, that, had we actual proof of Bin Laden's complicity, short of being plastered across every newspaper in minute detail, it would be conveyed to the leaders of the world to gain the unanimous, unconditional, support that hasn't materialized. 

Has Bin Laden committed acts that warrant his punishment? Assuredly. Was he in contact with, and encouraging, the terrorists? Possibly. Did he actually orchestrate the attacks on September 11? Doubtful. I fear his name appears on a list we've seen before. 

Chris Rasmussen 

Berkeley

Officials from Berkeley High and De Anza High have agreed that the school’s football teams will make up their cancelled game if the North Coast Section pushes back the beginning of the playoffs. 

Friday’s game was cancelled when no officials showed up for the 7 p.m. varsity kickoff. According to a source close to the situation, Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League officials botched the scheduling of officials. 

The NCS playoffs are scheduled to begin on Nov. 16. The Fremont Athletic League has already requested that the playoffs be moved back due to the cancellation of games after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The FAL cancelled all games that weekend, although most other games in Northern California went ahead as planned. Berkeley High, for instance, played James Logan High on Sept. 14. 

In a meeting earlier this week, ACCAL officials decided to throw their support behind the FAL’s plan in order to allow the Berkeley-De Anza game to be played. 

If the NCS does decide to move the playoffs back at its next meeting on Oct. 19, the Berkeley-De Anza game would be played on Nov. 16. 

Moving the playoffs back would also mean moving the date of the championship games from Nov. 30 or Dec. 1 to Dec. 7 or 8. That would take football, a fall sport, even further into the winter sports schedule, a serious inconvenience for student-athletes who play both football and a winter sport. 

“I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Bissell said Wednesday. “No determination has been made what will happen if the game isn’t made up, and unless the NCS pushes the playoffs back, I don’t see how that will happen.”

West Berkeley artists and artisans who fear the effects of office development in their neighborhood took a stand at the regular meeting of the Planning Commission on Wednesday. 

The commission spent nearly all of the meeting listening to residents speak about a proposed year-long moratorium on new office space in the mixed-use/light industrial zone of West Berkeley. 

Wednesday night marked the second time in the last year the Planning Commission has considered the moratorium. The commission passed the moratorium earlier in the year, but the City Council later directed it to reconsider the issue in light of the fact that the public had not been properly notified of the proposal. 

Unlike the public hearings on the moratorium held in January, the majority of the speakers were artists and representatives of west Berkeley art co-operatives. Art and artisanal studios are considered “light industry” in the West Berkeley Plan, and they are accorded special protections. 

Many artists who spoke Wednesday night said that the conversion of former industrial or artisanal buildings into offices was putting pressure on their landlords to raise rents, brought too much traffic into the neighborhood and generally destroyed the character of the community. 

Thirty-one people spoke at the public hearing Wednesday night; around two-thirds of them said they favored the moratorium. 

Sharon Siskin, a visual artist and a member of the Nexus art co-operative, set the tone for the evening when she told the commission that office development in the neighborhood is squeezing out the art community. 

“Development is rampant and impinging rapidly on our spaces at Nexus,” she said.  

“These spaces, like all the others being built in our neighborhood are most likely going to result in more commercial office spaces, more traffic and parking problems, more pollution and more restrictions on available work space for artists and craftspeople.”  

“It seems to me that without careful scrutiny of future building projects, and care for saving the spaces that already exist, that the arts – a precious resource that Berkeley can not afford to loose – will be forever lost in Berkeley.” 

Claire Cotts, a painter who has a studio in the Durkee Building at 800 Heinz St., said that between traffic problems and the increasing rents that artists must pay to compete with office space, many young people are giving up on Berkeley entirely. 

“Most artists just graduating from school are having to find places farther away, in Rodeo or somewhere,” she said. 

Peter Dayton, another Nexus artist, said that “You could turn Berkeley into Palo Alto if you want, but I think that would be a disaster.” 

A few people spoke in favor of the moratorium from the traditional manufacturing perspective. Susan Libby, the founder of Libby Labs, said that Berkeley often functioned as an “incubator space” for young industrial or technological businesses. She thought that if office development in the West Berkeley area were to continue, industry would continue to feel rent pressure and may be compelled to relocate. 

Most of the jobs at her laboratory, she said, are blue-collar jobs that pay living wages.  

“If you really want these kind of jobs in Berkeley, you need to have space for them,” she said. 

Rhiannon, the president of the Oceanview Tenants’ Association and a member of the West Berkeley Project Area Commission, said that manufacturing should be a city-wide priority. 

“Manufacturing is the only real provider of good, well-paying jobs for unskilled workers,” she said. 

Several opponents of the moratorium, among them Miriam Ng, a member of the board of directors of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, said that the recent economic downturn obviated the need for a moratorium.  

“The rules for conversion are so stringent that we should be giving a medal to people who want to convert,” she said. “You’re sending a message that you don’t want business here. When the economy changes, no one will want to come here.” 

One of the principal reasons for the proposed moratorium was a recent plan for a 500,000 square foot office building that would have been built at the 15-acre American Soils site near Aquatic Park. Charles Jones, owner of the American Soils site, said at the meeting that that deal was dead, and that he had no plans to sell his property, but that he opposed the moratorium nevertheless. 

However, he proposed a few “loopholes” that could be included in the moratorium if it does pass. He said that there should be an exemption for existing businesses that wish to expand their office space “so they don’t move away to Richmond,” and another exemption for solar-powered businesses. 

“Since the federal government will support tobacco growers but not solar businesses, we should start at the local level,” he said. 

The Planning Commission will likely vote on the proposal at its Nov. 14 meeting.

Editor: 

Now more than ever it is critically important to address our energy and climate problems. There can be no better way to honor the dead and injured of 9/11 than to act to reduce what is arguably the biggest driving force behind our foreign relations policies that have led so much of the world to hate us: our addiction to oil. 

It is a multiple win. We can reduce global tensions at the same time that we improve our economy and save ourselves from far greater death tolls from pollution and climate change simply by taking aggressive action to improve our energy efficiency and increase our use of renewable energy sources. 

Let’s make sure that energy and climate change issues are not pushed aside in the war against terrorism. Instead they should be an important part of our response. This is something we can act on independently as a nation – with actions like increased fuel efficiency and appliance standards, renewable energy portfolio standards and incentive programs – and internationally with the rest of the world – by rejoining the Kyoto process to make global climate change agreements that will work.  

Urge your congressional representatives to get the clean sustainable energy agenda back on track in Congress and the President to rejoin the world community on climate change. Let us do it in the honor of those who died on 9/11 and those whose lives are daily threatened both by oil politic related violence and by the environmentally damaging effects of our energy use. 

Tom Lent 

Berkeley

John H. Mitchell, who taught in the Oakland public schools for 34 years, is one of California’s luckier retired teachers: the longtime Berkeley resident doesn’t have to sell his house and move somewhere cheap. 

“We owe $520, and it will be paid off in August,” said Mitchell, president of the East Bay chapter of the California Retired Teachers Association. 

Others have not been so lucky, especially in the Bay Area. Stories abound of retirees receiving less than $1,000 a month because inflation has diminished retirement pensions that were low to begin with, compared to those of teachers retiring now. 

“The teachers, they lived here and taught here for 20 or 30 years, they want to stay here,” said Mitchell. A folk-singer on the side, he played with Pete Seeger at the 1963 U.C. Folk Festival and now entertains at assisted living facilities for the elderly. 

Last month, a bill intended to help the most elderly of the state’s retired teachers – some 16,000, according to the CRTA – passed both the state assembly and senate with overwhelming support. 

“It would help mostly those teachers over 80 years old,” said Mitchell, who is 77. 

“Typically these are not only the oldest teachers,” said Ed Ely, spokesperson for the CRTA, “but they’re the poorest, because they retired when teachers’ salaries and pension benefits were substantially lower than they are today.” 

The pension adjustments, called “purchase power protection” in official jargon, are drawn from a state fund reserved specifically for this purpose. The $800 million Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account draws on federal land sales and, Ely said, could fund AB135’s provisions for 30 years. 

Sponsored by assemblymember Sally Halvice of Los Angeles County and co-sponsored by Berkeley Assemblymember Dion Aroner, the bill would guarantee that retirees receive 80 percent of the value of their benefit at the time of retirement, rather than the current 75 percent. 

“It means somebody who retired earlier is going to get more tacked onto their retirement,” Mitchell said. 

Still, AB135, now sits on Gov. Gray Davis’ desk – a potential victim of statewide belt-tightening amidst lowered economic prospects, as well as labor politics. “One of the bill’s problems is that the PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) will want the same thing,” Mitchell said. 

The governor has until Monday to act, and it will become law if he neither signs it nor vetoes it. 

Teachers who retired before 1985 were largely passed over last year when a projected $12 billion surplus in the state teachers’ pension fund set off a round of new laws to increase retirement benefits.  

For the first time, because of the changes, teachers who served more than 25 years have their pensions computed based on the teaching year in which they received their highest pay. (Pensions were previously calculated based on the average of the highest three years in a row.) Service in summer school and some extracurricular teaching also became eligible for credit toward pensions. 

Teachers who stayed in the classroom the longest are now awarded flat bonuses of $200 a month for 30 years, $300 a month for 31 years, and $400 a month for 32 years or more. Another law provides an “ad-hoc” increase of 1 to 6 percent to retirement benefits, depending on length of career. 

Ely said that as a result of these changes, “a teacher now probably has a 30-40 percent better retirement than a teacher who retired 20 years ago or more.” 

Mitchell and other long-time retirees did benefit from one of last year’s laws: Medicare payments, previously $300 per person covered, are now taken care of by the state. 

“I figure I paid $10,000 or $20,000 dollars for medical insurance before they did this,” Mitchell said.  

The long-term goal of the CRTA, Ely said, is to push the purchasing power protection up to 100 percent of a retiree’s highest annual salary. 

Mike Steinman, a spokesperson for Assemblywoman Sally Havice, said he had no indication of where the governor stood on the bill. It has support from both main teachers’ unions, seniors’ organizations, the Association of California School Administrators, and the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, he said. 

“This is really just a very incremental leap, but it helps,” said Steinman. “It will make a difference in the long run to those who have more than earned this.”

Editor:  

The recent news story that a top bin Laden aide toured California was both shocking and depressing. It seems that our absurd “bring ‘em on in” immigration policy and our very lax airport and airline security has led directly to the Islamic terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center in New York City. Under the guise of ever-more “diversity” and “multiculturalism” we have allowed hundreds if not thousands of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists into our country. Our border controls have been a bad joke: terrorists and their sympathizers come and go willy-nilly. These terrorists must think that we are the world’s biggest saps.  

Our traditional so-called “melting pot” of immigrants has turned into a festering cauldron filled with a hate-America brew. If it is too politically incorrect to only stop immigration by Arabs and other Muslims, then we should simply stop all foreign immigration until we can root out all the present generation of immigrant-terrorists. 275,000,000 Americans should be enough to program our computers and leaf-blow our gardens.  

The next act of Islamic terrorism may not just take out a few skyscraper buildings and kill several thousand people: it may be to detonate a small nuclear weapon smuggled in and use it to destroy a whole American city, kill many thousands of people and render a large area as a radioactive wasteland. Let’s slam the immigrant door shut now before we suffer a horrific disaster on the level of the nuclear reactor meltdown at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. 

James K. Sayre, Oakland

On George A. Akerlof’s first day as an assistant professor at UC Berkeley 35 years ago, a colleague asked him to name 10 economic ideas he was interested in pursuing.  

On Wednesday of this week, Akerlof’s ninth idea earned him academia’s highest accolade – the Nobel Prize.  

Like many great ideas, Akerlof’s ground-breaking economic theory, which was based on the used-car market, was formulated over a working lunch in a Berkeley restaurant. 

Recalling that lunch on Wednesday night as colleagues from all over the campus gathered to toast him at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Akerlof still seemed stunned at winning the award. 

With what colleagues described as characteristic modesty, he attributed his success in large part to the nurturing and open-minded environment at the Berkeley campus. 

“I owe everything to Berkeley,” Akerlof said. “It has been an excellent community which encourages creativity.” 

He said the economics department is a haven for innovative thinking. 

“It’s a friendly, collegial place, which values quality over quantity,” he said. 

Akerlof, 61, was named the 2001 co-winner of the Nobel prize in economic sciences on Wednesday in recognition of his watershed work called “The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism.” 

His paper, which was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1970, showed how ill-informed buyers could undermine prices in the used-car market because they were suspicious that every car they looked at was a “lemon.”  

Sellers react by taking their quality cars off the market, because wary buyers aren’t willing to pay what the car is worth, and the quality of the market drops until it totally breaks down. 

His essay ran counter to conventional economic wisdom. It laid the foundation for a general theory of how people with differing amounts of information affect a wide range of markets. 

“His research was a big break from traditional economic theory with far-reaching implications in such diverse areas as health insurance, financial markets and the labor market” said David Romer, an economics professor at UC Berkeley. 

Professor Eugene Smolensky said this year’s award, along with the one Ackerlof’s colleague Daniel McFadden won last year for work on the development of statistical tools that measure individual decision-making, was recognition for an important new direction in economic thinking. 

“Their work is rooted in markets as they actually operate rather than in some idealized notion of how they operate,” said Smolensky, an economist and former dean of UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.  

“That notion was good enough when economists were asking if capitalism was better than socialism. Now that we are more interested in predictions about real world behavior, Ackerlof and McFadden have given us the theory and the tools to understand it.” 

Gia Calvillo, a doctoral student who worked under Akerlof during her first year, said her now-famous professor is a wonderful, creative and open minded person. 

“The first semester (for a graduate student) is brutal,” she said. “If it wasn’t for him I might have quit.” 

Despite the worldwide acclaim surrounding his Nobel Prize, Akerlof has remained modest about his achievements. 

The day he won the prize, he went to teach his afternoon seminar at the Department of Economics as usual. A French scholar made a presentation about income inequality in the United States, and professor Akerlof sat among the students and took part in the back and forth as they debated the idea. 

Today, when Akerlof meets with a fresh batch of graduate students for the first time, he remembers how he got his start at Berkeley. 

He always asks them to think of 10 ideas that they want to investigate. 

“He has always devoted his energy to teaching students how to be creative and think outside of the box,” Calvillo said.

Take a walk around downtown at lunchtime and you’ll see many of Berkeley High School’s 3,400 or so students. 

But when it’s time to be back in class, not all of them will be at their desks. 

It’s only seven weeks since school began and already 250 students have been singled out at the high school for poor attendance. Some have already racked up 30 or 40 absences. 

Without divulging more comprehensive figures, school officials acknowledge that truancy has been a problem for years. They have begun implementing a new policy to address it. Components include “downtown sweeps” and a formal “Check and Connect” program to recruit parents and other students to keep truants in school. 

But the new policy is up against a student culture in which almost everyone cuts class to some degree, and where skipping, students say, is incredibly easy to do.  

“A lot of times people cut because they’re not doing anything in class that day, or they have a substitute and there’s absolutely no reason to go,” said senior Sam Black, who has skipped occasionally. Others skip more frequently “because they’re not doing well in the class and their way of dealing with that is, ‘if I don’t go I don’t have to deal with the class.’” 

“It’s like a snowball,” Black said. “Once they start skipping then there’s no reason for them to go to class anymore.” 

“It’s so easy,” said senior Anna Sorenson, who, when she occasionally wanders the halls, is rarely asked why. “You can just say you’re late for class.” 

“It’s even easier to walk right off campus because there’s this big hole,” said senior Sarah Goodin, referring to a passage way beside the Berkeley Community Theater on Allston Way. Just a short walk east are tempting fast-food restaurants, movie theaters and CD and clothing stores. 

The school plans to work with Berkeley Police, UC Berkeley police and downtown’s Berkeley Guides to do “post-lunchtime sweeps” of the downtown area. They can check IDs of anyone under 18 and return them to school, though without using the “paddy wagon” tactics that landed an official apology from Berkeley Police in January 2000. 

“We’re trying to train kids that they’ve got that time (away) and then to come back,” said Vice Principal Lawrence Lee. 

But the sweeps policy does not appear to be in effect. “There are no sweeps,” wrote Board of Education Vice President Shirley Issel in an e-mail Friday, “and I see few kids wearing (mandatory) ID tags = no enforcement. The truancy policy is in process and the lack of enforcement is very disappointing to me.” 

Issel said she’s not holding out much hope for Check and Connect, either. That program, however, appears to be having at least some small success. 

Earl Bill is the new program’s coordinator. He ran the school’s on-campus suspension program for the past 10 years, and now holds court in room H-105 of the cavernous H building, where his desk has neither a computer nor a phone. 

Check and Connect was conceived around the idea that its coordinator would have access to a computer database of student attendance records. With the click of a mouse he would be able to print out a daily record of who’s cutting class. The records are on a nearby computer, but there isn’t a printer connected to it. 

“I have around 250 names,” Bill said, “but without access to a printer I can’t (print out) the student’s schedule.” 

So, he does it the old-fashioned way. He’s gone to teachers and guidance counselors to ask them to report to him on a daily basis, who is not coming to class, and he also hears from security staff.  

On a first violation – for missing at least three classes – a student is sent to Bill and told that by law he has to be in school – that his attendance is being watched and that his parent can be fined or jailed if he continues to skip class. A letter also goes home to his parent or guardian. Bill’s new job started Sept. 5; 150 letters went out two weeks later. 

By the time a second violation occurs – for three more absences – the student must carry a card that has to be initialed by every teacher of every class on his schedule that week. Bill has the teachers’ own initials on file to detect forgeries. A second, different letter goes home. 

On the third strike, the parent is brought before Bill, the parent resource coordinator and the vice principal. By this time the student has bucked both the attendance checks and his contract to go to class. The parent learns that, unless there are outside problems warranting intervention by a health professional, the school district’s child welfare services will intervene and can notify the district attorney for prosecution. 

“After that many chances the kid can’t say that, ‘Nobody gave me a chance, nobody told me about this,’” Bill said. 

Check and Connect appears to be working. Hard numbers are making an impression with students. “They say, ‘I haven’t missed that many classes,’” Bill said. “I say, ‘Are you counting?’” End-of-the-week attendance is up, and Bill sees students in classrooms more and in hallways less. 

Word is getting around, both at home and at school. “You don’t have to do a lot of work,” Bill said. “You just send out about 10 letters and parents start talking.” Their children, he suspects, mention the letters nervously to their friends, too. 

Still, it’s an uphill battle. Students flat-out tell Bill they’re used to walking off campus whenever they want to. “I have 12th graders now who are very critical because they’re cutting every day,” Bill said. “And they think they’re going to graduate.” 

A printer and a phone, Bill said, would help. 

“If they know that things are not working, it doesn’t take them long to say, ‘Hey, something has broken,’” Bill said. “If they think it’s broken, they’re going to continue to do it.”

Millie Ketcheshawno, a Native American filmmaker who died last year, will be remembered during the 10th annual Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow and Indian Market to be held Saturday at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. 

Ketcheshawno, who participated in the Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island during the 1970s, worked with the National Park Service to create the “We Hold The Rock” exhibit and video that are shown each day at the park, said Craig Glassner, a park ranger with the Golden Gate National Recreation area on Alcatraz.  

The occupation by Indians of All Tribes, which began on Nov. 20, 1969, was the most significant event in Alcatraz’s history and was pivotal to the creation of self-determination, the policy that recognizes tribal autonomy and self-rule, said Glassner, who will present a letter of appreciation to Ketcheshawno’s family for her contribution to the exhibit. The occupation ended in 1971 when federal officials removed participants from the island, Glassner said. 

“I want to recognize Millie not just for the work she did historically for native peoples but for assisting us in making sure that the story would be told to us, our children and our children’s children,” Glassner said. 

The free event, sponsored by the city of Berkeley and the Indigenous Peoples Day Committee, celebrates native culture through food, dance, ceremony and art. It will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  

A grand entry ceremony will introduce elders and dancers in traditional regalia. Native groups represented will include Seminole, Kiowa, Miwok, Lacota, Black Feet and Comanche, said Shar Suke, a Pow Wow coordinator and Oneida/Cherokee. She expects about 1,000 people to attend. 

“The grand entry will get the Pow Wow off to a good start,” she said, noting that people should pay attention to the Master of Ceremonies, who will announce when it is appropriate to take photographs. 

Dancers, drummers and singers from across the Bay Area will perform, as well as some from Arizona, Oklahoma and Maryland, Suke said.  

The original goal of the event was to educate the public about native issues and culture, Suke said. A table will display information about Native American issues, such as land disputes. Native Americans can also learn about health services that address diabetes risk, substance abuse and safe sex, she said. 

Martin Luther King Jr. Park is located between Center Street and Allston Way, and one block west of the Berkeley BART station. Parking is limited and attendees are encouraged to bring their own seating. All drums are invited.

Marcelle Ching’s fourth and fifth graders were forming a line according to birthdays, from January to December. One student wanted to place a reporter in the lineup. 

“When is your happy birthday?” he asked in heavily accented English. 

This was an exercise in counting and repeating months of the year in English, something Ms. Ching’s students were practicing for only the third time since their classes at Malcolm X Magnet School started a week earlier. They are students of a Newcomer class, part of a year-long pilot program in English-immersion. It is for immigrant students in the Berkeley Unified School District who speak little to no English. 

“They are all very active learners,” said Ching of her 18 students. About two-thirds are Spanish-speaking, while others come from Germany, Bulgaria, Yemen, Korea and Brazil.  

The teachers and administrators hope that this new program will be a more effective way to teach the district’s new immigrant students. Prior to this, most newcomers were placed in classes with native English-speaking classmates and a teacher with Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) certification.  

SDAIE-certified teachers are trained to make the regular curriculum accessible to English learners by using special teaching methods and strategies. The English learners were also pulled out of class twice a week for 45-minute lessons with an itinerant English Language Development (ELD) instructor.  

The newly-arrived Spanish-speaking students were often enrolled in Spanish-English dual-immersion programs – a program where the students begin speaking mostly Spanish in kindergarten and over five years speak and learn mostly in English. Many students entered the program at higher grade levels, where more advanced English is used. Some of these students, according to Newcomer instructor Kathleen King, would just sit through the English instruction and wait for the Spanish sections.  

“There’s not a lot of ELD taught in bilingual classes,” said King, who has also worked as a dual-immersion teacher. 

Plans to introduce a Newcomer program, which is a recommendation in the district’s Bilingual Master Plan, had been discussed for years in the instructional services department of the school district. However, it was not until this summer that concrete action was taken. Two classes at the Malcolm X school site were approved, one for second-third graders and one for fourth-fifth graders. Participation in the program is an option for all immigrant students regardless of where they live, and children who live outside the Malcolm X zone receive transportation. 

According to State and Federal Projects Manager Carla Basom, who took over the Newcomer Program in late July shortly after she joined the staff, the decision to pilot the program was partly financial, as it is more cost efficient to pay two Newcomer teachers rather than four itinerant ELD teachers. It will also provide immigrant students with stronger English skills than the pull-out method, which she acknowledged as the “least effective” way to teach ELD.  

Spanish-speaking students still have a choice between the Newcomer program and the dual-immersion program, where, because part of the instruction is in their native language, they will learn subject content more efficiently.  

“Obviously (in the Newcomer classes) they don’t have the vocabulary for a lot of the concepts, so you spend a lot of time teaching the vocabulary in English,” said Basom. Which program they choose depends on many factors, including how quickly the child can learn English and the child’s native language literacy. 

The district hopes that giving students this choice will provide programs that work for all immigrant students. “We’re trying to deliver the best instruction program to kids that we can,” said Basom. 

After a week and a half of classes, the students in Ms. Ching’s class were already showing signs of progress. “This is only the third time we’ve gone over the months of the year, and they’ve grasped it really quickly,” she remarked after the students successfully organized themselves by birthday.  

An important part of the class work for the day was learning how to follow directions: draw a circle, underline, make an X. “I’m acclimating the students to follow the directions they’re going to see in their workbooks,” explained Ching. The curriculum of the Newcomer classes is meant to gear students toward fitting into regular classrooms with a SDAIE-certified instructor. 

In the transitional Newcomer program, students should be prepared to join an SDAIE class by the end of one year. ELD instructors will return a student sooner if the student tests proficient and is deemed ready. A study of newcomer programs by Monica Friedlander of the National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education at George Washington University, says students should stay in the program no longer than one year “in order to minimize the period of isolation from a mainstream program.” 

Newcomer students at Malcolm X are encouraged to interact with students from the other classes, and the ELD instructors coordinate activities with teachers of mainstream classes. “I want them to get a sense that they’re part of a greater group of kids,” said King, who teaches the second and third grade Newcomers. This interaction also gives them a chance to practice their new English with native peers.  

The district is also preparing the mainstream teachers for the Newcomer students. Using funds from a Title VII grant, the district will employ trainers to give  

these teachers SDAIE training on methods for teaching classes of mixed native and non-native English speakers. This involves modifying speech, using visuals and other media, and putting lessons into a context that is understandable for the non-native students.  

“It’s hard teaching in California nowadays,” said Basom. Under California law, all teachers must be certified to teach English learners by the year 2005. Basom said that being able to effectively teach English learners is “very complex and really requires ongoing training.”  

ELD instructors hope that the SDAIE training will help mainstream teachers deal with the problems of their immigrant students, which in the past were often left for the itinerant teachers to handle. King acknowledged the trouble with teaching a group of students with varying levels of English. “It’s very difficult to address all the students’ needs well.” 

Approximately four out of 10 people who took advantage of National Depression Screening Day in Berkeley Thursday showed indications of post-traumatic stress disorder. Counselors say the high rate may be a result of anxiety about the Sept. 11 attacks and the possibility of others. 

The screening in Berkeley was part of an 11-year-old nationwide effort in which psychologists and therapists give free anonymous counseling at more than 4,500 sites. The event coincided this year with the one month anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America. 

In consideration of those attacks, the screening added eight questions to assess post-traumatic stress. One, for example, asked “In the past week, to what extent have you lost enjoyment for things, kept your distance from people, or found it difficult to experience feelings?”  

“In the wake of the events that happened on September 11th, we felt the need to address people’s emotional responses,” said Katherine Cruise, communications manager for the Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization Screening for Mental Health, Inc.  

Nationwide, more people were expected to attend the annual screening because of the events of the past month. “I think it’s had a huge impact on people,” said Cruise. Although many of those who lost friends and family or who witnessed the tragedy and its aftermath will be encouraged to seek counseling, Cruise said that those who were not directly affected are also at risk for depression.  

“For the rest of us who are all across the country, watching these indelible images over and over again on TV, watching those images can cause nightmares, insomnia or anxiety.” She added that uncertainty about what is coming next can also contribute to these symptoms.  

Some 30 counselors worked in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to assess the approximately 100 people looking for help. The majority of clients were students. Each person filled out a set of questionnaires designed to reveal signs of clinical depression or any related mental illness. In a 20 minute meeting, counselors then advised these individuals whether they should seek help and referred them to other services. 

“We’re giving them resources and letting them know what’s out there,” said Oakland psychologist and screening organizer Lesley Parke.  

UC Health Services counselor Susan Bell said that since the September attacks that office has seen an increase in students suffering from anxiety. In some cases the events of Sept. 11 exacerbated existing symptoms. Although more students have sought counseling, she wasn’t sure what had caused the increase. “The numbers are higher this year, but we don’t know if that is directly related to the attacks,” she said. 

However, Parke said that the attacks did trigger a doubling in the number of students who wanted to volunteer at the event.UC Berkeley has been a screening site for the event for the last five years, sponsored by the Alameda County Psychological Association, University Health Services, the Association of Psychology Undergraduates and the Students for Mental Health Awareness. 

According to the National Institute for Mental Health, every year approximately 18.8 million Americans, or about 9.5 percent of the population age 18 and older, suffer from a depressive disorder. The symptoms include the following: feelings of sadness, hopelessness or worthlessness, difficulty concentrating, constant fatigue, unexplained aches and pains, and thoughts of death or suicide. People who are aware of these symptoms in themselves or in their friends or family are encouraged to call the Alameda County Mental Health and Substance Abuse Access Program at 1-800-491-9099.

SAN FRANCISCO — Extending San Francisco International Airport’s runways by filling in part of the bay could be consistent with smart growth depending on the increase in air travel during the next few decades. 

But a panel of airport land use and growth experts said Thursday that has become harder to predict after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the resulting drop in air travel. 

The idea of filling in between 500 and 800 acres of the bay has drawn criticism from neighbors, environmentalists and even windsurfers who say it will hurt the life and tides of San Francisco Bay. 

Proponents of the plan say it’s consistent with smart growth – which calls for growing in and around urban centers instead of sprawling – because it would use existing transportation infrastructure.  

Also, it would stall the need to build another airport on the fringes of the Bay Area. 

But opponents say filling in the bay would further harm an already damaged resource and would cause an imbalance of housing and jobs on the San Francisco peninsula because a larger airport would bring more workers who would need more housing in an already crowded area. 

Opponents also said the plan would only alleviate airport capacity problems for about 10 years. They point out planning has been done up to 2020, but it probably would take a decade to get approval and build any project. 

Officials have proposed the expansion because the airport is plagued by delays, especially during foggy weather.  

The airport has two sets of runways that intersect and are only 750 feet apart, making it difficult or impossible for planes to land simultaneously in bad weather. 

The Federal Aviation Administration requires runways to be 4,300 feet apart for simultaneous landings in bad weather. 

The plans would reconfigure the runways, increasing the distance between them, at an estimated cost of $2 billion to $3.5 billion. 

But some opponents think it’s premature to build runways into the bay. 

“I don’t think smart growth can coincide with building them now, before we know if the other (no-build) alternatives can work,” said panelist Stuart Cohen, chairman of the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition. 

The plans are far from being finalized. The airport is a little more than halfway through the environmental studies for the plans and is considering other options that don’t include building into the bay. 

After the environmental reviews, the plans will be open for public comment, followed by the necessary approval from 30 state and federal regulatory agencies. 

Some of the no-build options include doing nothing, using technological advances to help manage operations and managing demand, such as with pricing regulations and other incentives. 

Passenger volume at the airport has dropped since last month’s terrorist attacks, but airport officials believe the volume will increase by the time the runway project is ready for construction. 

But it’s still hard to know how much that increase will be, said panelist Geoffrey Gosling, a professor in the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. 

“The implications of recent events are not yet clear,” he said. “However, I think it would be very surprising if the forces that have caused air travel to grow in the past couple of years suddenly come to an end.” 

Typically, about 105,000 passengers pass through the San Francisco airport every day, but in the week following the attacks, that number dropped by 40 percent to 50 percent. 

A month later, the airport has about 25 percent fewer passengers than normal. 

A plan completed late last year by a regional air transportation committee concludes that, in the next 20 years, there will be a 60 percent increase in air operations in the region, where there are three major airports. And at San Francisco International, another 63,000 people per day are expected by 2020. 

“The thing we have to keep in mind is air travel is going to return,” said airport spokesman Ron Wilson. “It’s going to take a while, and we have to look long range and plan for the future.” 

SACRAMENTO — Citing a slowing economy and fiscal fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Gov. Gray Davis on Thursday ordered state agency heads to prepare to cut their budgets by 15 percent next fiscal year. 

Only public safety and firefighting departments would be spared from cuts. 

“There is no question that our economy is now experiencing the full impact of the national economic slowdown,” Davis said. 

He ordered state agencies to submit budget cut proposals to his office by Oct. 22, and said he will convene a special meeting of his cabinet the following day to discuss the proposals. 

The state is facing its bleakest fiscal picture and deepest budget cuts since the recession of the early 1990s left California with a $14 billion budget hole. 

“We’re under no illusions, it’s going to be very painful and there are going to be some very difficult choices,” said Sandy Harrison, a spokesman for Davis’ Department of Finance. 

Davis will consider each department’s proposal on a case-by-case basis when crafting his budget plan for the 2002-03 fiscal year, Harrison said. Davis will release his budget plan in January. The state’s fiscal year begins July 1. State officials were stunned Thursday by the announcement, and some said 15 percent cuts could mean staff layoffs and reduced services. 

“It’s very depressing, and if we in fact have to accommodate a 15 percent cut in our budget, it’ll be devastating to the program,” said Peter Douglas, executive director of the California Coastal Commission. 

Doug Stone, spokesman for the California Department of Education, said, “Fifteen percent isn’t just a matter of further belt tightening, it goes to hitting the bone.” 

Roy Stearns, a deputy director in the state parks department, agreed, saying that 15 percent “is a sizable amount, and we’ll have to look at it very closely.” 

But Stearns and Douglas acknowledged that cuts will be unavoidable in the current fiscal crisis. 

“I also understand the sad condition of the economy and the country right now, and if the cuts are necessary then we all have to do our part,” Douglas said. 

Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, an Arleta Democrat who chairs a special budget committee, said his panel will hold hearings in November to address the cuts. 

California is not alone in its budget troubles. 

Several states, including Florida, Nebraska and Connecticut, are calling or considering special legislative sessions to deal with steep revenue losses in the current and coming fiscal years. 

“This year has been unlike any other year, except for perhaps the ’90-’91 recession,” said Arturo Perez, a budget analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

Davis has said he may ask the California Legislature to convene a special session, and he is planning a summit with business and labor leaders to discuss the effects of the Sept. 11 attacks on California’s economy. 

He said the terrorist strikes likely will damage an already-slow economy that was particularly hard-hit by the recent implosion of the high-technology industry. 

Davis previously had asked departments to prepare for budget cuts of up to 10 percent. He also vetoed several dozen bills this week he said would have increased state spending. 

The state’s budget contains a $2.6 billion reserve, the largest in two decades, but the sagging economy is projected to cut state revenues by far more. Revenues were down by more than $1.1 billion in the first three months of the fiscal year. 

Now, the attacks have “injected even more uncertainty into our economy and we must prepare for greater revenue reductions as a result,” Davis said in his memo to the cabinet. 

In addition, Davis is struggling to find a way to repay the more than $6 billion the state spent this year to buy electricity on behalf of three cash-strapped utilities. The state Public Utilities Commission last week derailed his proposal to repay the state’s general fund with long-term borrowing. 

——— 

On the Net: This year’s budget can be found at http://www.dof.ca.gov 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A few weeks ago, online access to federal criminal filings suddenly stopped. Though court records remain publicly available on paper at courthouses, they were deemed too public when it came to the Internet. 

The U.S. Judicial Conference’s decision drew criticism from First Amendment advocates. Yet it is only the latest manifestation of a privacy-vs.-access debate becoming more common as government agencies – the keepers of public information – confront Internet age challenges. 

The conference, a 27-judge panel that sets policy for federal courts, cited privacy and safety concerns in cutting off Internet access to the criminal records. 

“A lot of court records have unevaluated, raw stuff,” said Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of the Privacy Journal newsletter in Providence, R.I. “I think it is very dangerous to put that kind of information on the Web.” 

Smith maintains that Internet records are palpably different from written records because they “are available anonymously ... to people who have to show very little need to know beyond idle curiosity.” 

But Charles Davis, who heads the Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said the new policy reflects an unfounded fear that “electronic information is more dangerous than paper information.” 

Before the Internet, public records often gathered dust – and people who really wanted to review them had to travel to a reading room and show their faces to a clerk. That system tended to favor the rich and well-connected over the poor. 

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, some government agencies have pulled potentially sensitive information from the Web. 

The Environmental Protection Agency, for one, no longer offers detailed reports on chemical plants on its Web site for fear terrorists could use them to plot attacks. Anyone wanting a report must visit a government reading room and offer identification. 

The appearance online of other public records has already stirred considerable controversy. 

In New York City, a nonprofit group posted voter registration records on a Web site, allowing anyone offering a last name and a birth date to retrieve voters’ home addresses and political affiliations. 

Even though the information has long been available on paper, the group decided to block access to the records after complaints from city residents. 

And in another case involving the courts, the Judicial Conference initially denied crime news site APBnews.com the ability to post financial disclosure reports on about 1,600 federal judges. 

The conference said posting such records created security risks even though the courts routinely gave copies to anyone who requested them – after first notifying the judge involved. The conference later agreed to permit posting. 

In deciding to bar federal criminal filings from online posting, U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II, a member of the Judicial Conference, cited reports that prison inmates had  

used them to identify other prisoners who had cooperated  

with prosecutors. 

“It has resulted in some instances in beatings or worse within the prison system,” he said, declining to provide specifics. Computers are frequently available in prison libraries. 

Haden said his Charleston-based judicial district had already concluded that some material, such as pre-sentencing reports, contains many private details that ought not be available electronically. 

But he said other districts had not considered the issue. 

“That’s why the conference’s criminal law committee wants to study this further, to come up with appropriate protocols,” Haden said. 

Haden believes the Judicial Conference ultimately will decide to make criminal court records available on the Internet, with a few deletions for privacy concerns. A review is expected within two years. 

In the meantime, the conference voted to permit electronic access to civil and bankruptcy court records, with some deletions, such as Social Security cases. 

Online court records have been available for as many as 13 federal district courts in 10 states through a service called PACER. The criminal filings were quickly dropped after the decision. 

Paul McMasters, First Amendment ombudsman of The Freedom Forum in Arlington, Va., said the importance of absolute public access to criminal court records should trump any other concerns. 

“Freedom of speech is meaningless unless we have the maximum amount of information from our government,” he said. “That’s what makes ordinary citizens partners with their elected leaders. That’s access.” 

McMasters said if privacy concerns can be addressed with civil records, “you can do the same thing with criminal court records.” 

——— 

On the Net: http://www.uscourts.gov 

The anthrax that killed a Florida man was not stolen from a Department of Energy laboratory. It most certainly was not manufactured from scratch by terrorists. 

And now some scientists are saying it may not even have any connection to Iowa, as earlier reported. 

As misinformation and theories abound about the origin of the anthrax found in the offices of a Boca Raton, Fla., supermarket tabloid, scientists are using new methods to compare the genetic fingerprint of the anthrax spores to known strains of the bacteria. 

Microbiologist Paul Keim of Northern Arizona University has created a genetic profile of the anthrax discovered there and is now comparing it to other strains, said Martin Hugh-Jones, a close colleague of Keim and a professor of epidemiology at Louisiana State University. 

Using genetic fingerprinting, “you can pinpoint a strain of anthrax to its geographic origin or perhaps even to its laboratory origin,” said Scott Layne, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California at Los Angeles. 

So far Keim has declined to talk about his work, citing national security concerns. 

“I’ve seen many reports in the media saying that we’re involved in this investigation but I will assure that there’s been no confirmation of that from anyone at this university,” Keim said during a briefing at the school’s Flagstaff, Ariz., campus Thursday. “It would be irresponsible for me to confirm that type of situation given that there’s an ongoing criminal investigation.” 

But Hugh-Jones said that if the bacteria used in Florida belonged to any well-known strain, Keim would have identified it right away. 

“From all the fancy footwork, it’s clear that they didn’t get an exact match,” Hugh-Jones said. 

He and other experts declined to speculate how long it could take to identify the Florida strain that killed Robert Stevens, a photo editor for The Sun. Anthrax spores were also found on Stevens’ computer keyboard, and two of his co-workers were found to have inhaled some of the spores. They are being treated with antibiotics. 

The FBI is investigating how and why the anthrax got into the newspaper offices, but they said they could not tie it to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. 

Earlier this week a federal official who asked not to be identified told The Associated Press that the Florida anthrax was similar to a strain collected in Iowa during the 1950s. That led to speculation that the attackers could have used the “Ames strain,” an especially virulent form of anthrax taken from a sick animal at Iowa State University about that time. There were even erroneous reports that it might have been stolen from an Iowa laboratory. 

But the FBI put those stories to rest on Thursday. 

“At this time there is no information concerning any link to Iowa,” said Larry Holmquist, an FBI spokesman in Omaha, Neb. 

Vito Del Vecchio, a bacteriologist at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, said Thursday that federal authorities have asked him to apply a second DNA fingerprinting method to the Florida samples, an indication that their identity probably has not yet been pinpointed. 

Keim and Hugh-Jones have been working for about eight years to create DNA fingerprints of as many anthrax strains as they can. So far, they have succeeded with more than 400 strains, a fraction of the many hundreds that are thought to exist. 

In May 2000, the researchers published an anthrax family tree in the Journal of Bacteriology that showed the genetic relationships of 89 strains. Hugh-Jones said that tree could be enormously valuable in narrowing down potential sources of the anthrax. 

“Even if it’s not exact,” Hugh-Jones said, “we can say, ’OK, if it’s between this and that, this is where we’ll find it.’ ” 

Even a decade ago it would have been very difficult to identify an anthrax strain with such precision. But DNA fingerprinting gives such a distinctive result that it amounts to a smoking gun. 

“I think it would be very dangerous for anybody to be found with this,” Hugh-Jones said. “They’d have an awful lot of explaining to do.” 

WASHINGTON — In a stark warning, the FBI said Thursday it has received information there may be additional terrorist attacks inside the United States or abroad in the next several days. 

The bureau said its information does not identify specific targets, but it has asked local police to be on the highest alert and for all Americans to be wary of suspicious activity. 

“Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government the reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days,” the FBI said in its warning. 

“The FBI has again alerted all local law enforcement to be on the highest alert and we call on all people to immediately notify the FBI and local law enforcement of any unusual or suspicious activity,” it said. 

President Bush said he had personally reviewed the intelligence that prompted the FBI alert. 

The intelligence represented “a general threat on America,” he said at a news conference Thursday night. 

In a taped interview for ABC’s “Nightline,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said, “I think the next several days are obviously important partially because of the environment in which we find ourselves in the initial response period” in Afghanistan.” 

Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said the department had received new intelligence within the past few days about a potential attack and decided to alert the public as well as law enforcement agencies. 

“We realize the importance of the public accurately understanding the kinds of alerts we are sending out to law enforcement,” said Tucker. 

She said since Sept. 11 the FBI has sent law enforcement agencies five or six alerts. One that urged extra security and vigilance over crop-dusting operations was eventually made public. 

Ashcroft has also warned Americans about possible attacks in retaliation for the U.S.-led bombing campaign in Afghanistan. 

“We asked everyone to be on the highest alert and we’re asking everyone to do that again,” said Tucker. She added, in words similar to Ashcroft’s this week, “Americans should go on with their lives, there’s no reason people should live in panic.” 

It was the FBI’s second request this week that law enforcement move to its highest state of alert. The first was on Sunday. 

Thursday’s statement was the first to suggest attacks might occur within several days. 

Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller have said they intend to alert Americans to any credible threats about future terrorist plans. 

In recent days, the FBI has asked supervisors of water supplies, nuclear and electric power plant operators, owners of crop dusters and drivers of hazardous waste trucks among others to increase security to ward off attacks. 

“We are working to do everything possible and we would enlist the help of citizens in that,” Ashcroft said earlier Thursday, before the FBI warning was issued.

The Associated Press 

KABUL, Afghanistan — The first daylight raid on the Afghan capital in the 5-day-old U.S.-led air campaign sent shoppers scattering in panic Thursday, jumping on donkey carts and bicycles to flee heavy explosions. In the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, a hit on a munitions dump set off a series of deafening blasts – and an exodus of civilians toward the Pakistani border. 

U.S. planes returned to the skies over Kabul late Thursday, and a huge fireball lit up the sky over the eastern part of the city in the direction of a training base of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terror network. 

Huge detonations accompanied by a howling wind could also be heard Thursday evening from the Afghan side of the border in the Pakistani frontier town of Chaman, about 70 miles south of Kandahar. 

One month after the terror attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Pakistani officials acknowledged for the first time that U.S. planes and personnel were on the ground as part of the American-led campaign against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and that the United States had been granted use of two key bases. 

But the air campaign is so controversial in Muslim Pakistan that the government publicly denied there were any American military personnel in the country. Pakistani officials who confirmed the American presence were careful not to categorize them as military personnel. 

Pakistan stressed that its territory would not be a staging ground for military strikes against neighboring Afghanistan. Assistance to the United States has stirred up an angry backlash against Gen. Pervez Musharraf from militant Muslim parties. More than 15 U.S. military aircraft, including C-130 transport planes, arrived over the past two days at a Pakistani base at Jacobabad, 300 miles northeast of the port city of Karachi and about 150 miles from the Afghan border, said Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.  

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said of the arrival of U.S. personnel, “When the Americans enter Afghanistan, here will start the real war – not now.” 

In London, the head of the British armed forces, Adm. Sir Michael Boyce, said U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan could last into next summer, unless the country’s ruling Islamic militia surrenders bin Laden. 

“It could be a very short haul ... (or) we must expect to go through the winter and into next summer at the very least,” Boyce said. 

The Taliban claimed at least 115 people had been killed in overnight strikes late Wednesday and early Thursday, including 100 in a village near Jalalabad and 15 who died when a missile hit a mosque in that northeastern city. 

No independent confirmation of the Taliban claims was possible. 

The southern Afghan city of Kandahar, home base and birthplace of the Taliban, has been hammered repeatedly in the U.S. raids, and it took another pounding Thursday. Warplanes again targeted a compound near the airport where bin Laden followers had lived. 

Also hit was a munitions dump outside a Taliban base, causing huge explosions that sent many Kandahar residents fleeing. “People ran without looking back,” said Abdul Gharrar, arriving at Pakistan’s Chaman border crossing hours later. 

“I had just finished with my prayers when I heard loud explosions and the ground moved beneath our feet,” said another refugee, Nematullah Ahmed, who runs a shop with his father. “When we ran out there were planes overhead dropping bombs. There was dust and smoke everywhere. Everyone was scared and running in the streets — my father put us in a taxi and we left.” 

The border remains closed to refugees, but many slip through on side roads or mountain tracks. 

After four nights of bombing, people in Kabul had become accustomed to raids beginning after dark. Thursday’s daylight strike came at 5:30 p.m., the skies were clear and cloudless, and many people were out shopping for their evening meal. 

Once the attack began, panicked civilians fled by any means of transport they could find — jumping into donkey-drawn carts, flagging down bicyclists to hop on the back, clambering into hand-drawn wagons used to haul goods. 

About four hours later, U.S. planes struck again. A fireball was seen from the direction of Rishkore, an al-Qaida training base near Kabul. The camp has been empty for months, but buildings, training facilities and offices remain. 

Detonations were also heard east of Kabul near a military academy and artillery batteries targeted the previous night. 

Only a day after the U.N. World Food Program announced it was resuming road shipments of aid into Afghanistan, it hit a roadblock — in the form of the Taliban. A convoy of relief supplies from Pakistan to the western Afghan city Herat, near the Iranian border, was stopped by Taliban demanding a large “road tax.” 

“We refused,” spokesman Francesco Luna said. The standoff remained unresolved late Thursday. 

In Afghanistan’s north, the alliance of opposition forces claimed Thursday they had taken the key central province of Gur after heavy fighting with Taliban forces during the night. Spokesman Mohammed Abil said fighting continued into the morning in several areas. 

The claim could not be independently verified. Gur borders four provinces that the opposition considers crucial to efforts to unseat the Taliban. 

In other developments: 

— British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Thursday that Britain and the United States agree there are no immediate plans for a wider war outside of Afghanistan. 

— An Air Force sergeant, Evander Earl Andrews, was killed in a heavy equipment accident in Qatar, becoming the first U.S. death in Operation Enduring Freedom, military officials said. 

— Afghanistan’s former king, Mohammad Zaher Shah, is working to hold a gathering of tribal leaders, or loya jirga, to select a new head of state in Kabul if a cease-fire is reached, a senior aide, Yusuf Nuristani, said. 

— Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, in an interview with a Saudi magazine to be published Friday, said the war with America will not end with his death. “My death will not end the war. The (Afghan) tribes along with the Taliban are ready for war ... and they agreed to that,” Omar was quoted as saying. 

— The FBI said it has received information there may be additional terrorist attacks inside the United States or abroad in the next several days but has no specifics on targets. 

— At a Pentagon service marking the one-month anniversary of its targeting by terrorists, President Bush said those who helped sponsor the attack will have “no place to run or hide or rest.” 

— The head of U.S. immigration said 13 of the hijackers entered the country legally but officials can find no records of six others, leaving their identities in doubt. 

——— 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Kathy Gannon contributed to this dispatch from Islamabad, Pakistan. 

NEW YORK — City officials rejected a $10 million relief check from a Saudi prince Thursday after he suggested U.S. policies in the Middle East were partly to blame for the World Trade Center attacks. 

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, in a statement released by his publicist during his visit to Ground Zero, said: “At times like this one, we must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack. I believe the government of the United States of America should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.” The comments drew a rebuke from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, followed by an announcement that the check was rejected. 

“We are not going to accept the check – period,” Sunny Mindel, the mayor’s communications director, told The Associated Press after The AP asked her office about the prince’s statement. 

Giuliani, at a City Hall news conference, said such remarks “were part of the problem” behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. “There is no moral equivalent for this attack,” the mayor said. “The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered 5,000, 6,000 innocent people. ... Not only are those statements wrong, they’re part of the problem.” The prince, an outspoken member of the Saudi royal family, is a major investor in American companies. After his tour of the Trade Center ruins, the prince initially called the attack “a tremendous crime.” 

“It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “We are here to tell America and to tell New York that Saudi Arabia is with the United States wholeheartedly.” 

But in the statement, the prince said the U.S. government should “adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause.” 

He added: “Our Palestinian brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of Israelis while the world turns the other cheek. ... Arabs believe that if the U.S. government wanted, it could play a pivotal role in pushing Israel to sign and fully implement a comprehensive peace treaty.” 

Alwaleed is chairman of Kingdom Holding Co. and was No. 6 on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest men for 2001. 

The prince presented an envelope to Giuliani during his visit to the disaster siste. At about that time, the publicist handed the three-page statement to journalists. In his spoken comments to reporters, the prince did not criticize U.S. policies, saying instead, “I came here to show my allegiance to New York.” 

Alwaleed said prime terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, does not represent Islam’s Wahabi sect, the strict interpretation founded in Saudi Arabia. 

“This guy does not belong to Wahabis,” he said. “He does not belong to Islam or any religion in the whole world.” 

BOSTON — His gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, a 52-year-old pacifist clutched an anti-war sign in a city square this week, again mobilized to decry an American war. 

But this time, it was different: Americans are scared as never before. 

“As for convincing people, you may have to go a little bit further, because there has been an attack on this country,” said the protester, Bill Leary, a Vietnam veteran converted to the peace movement 30 years ago. 

Around the country, peace activists are again scrawling slogans and taking to the streets, this time to protest the U.S. attacks in Afghanistan. But they are striking a gentler, less confrontational tone than in the past, searching for tactics better adapted to the political terrain transformed by the Sept. 11 attacks on the American homeland. They have been avoiding civil disobedience and other confrontation. 

“It’s a different situation, and it creates a special challenge for the peace movement,” said Howard Zinn, the American historian and anti-war activist. “The peace movement finds itself with a message of peace in a situation where people’s emotions have been aroused ... in a way they have never been aroused before.” 

Shaped by Vietnam and last mobilized en masse in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, the modern peace movement has never confronted such an atmosphere of intense patriotism steeped in fears for safety at home. Even at the height of the nuclear arms race with the Soviets, the domestic threat – however frightening – was still only potential. 

“We have a tough sell this time,” said Ofer Levy, a 35-year-old doctor wearing a peace symbol on his jacket during the Boston demonstration. “People who disagree with us say, ‘We just had 6,000 casualties on our own soil. What do you mean, peace?”’ 

Anti-war protesters, who have been gearing up since the first U.S. threats of retaliation, have mounted demonstrations in Boston, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere this week. Within hours of the first attacks in Afghanistan, more than 1,000 protesters converged on a New York City park less than two miles from the World Trade Center. 

On Tuesday, at the Boston protest, organizers had hoped for up to 1,000. Instead, barely 100 came. They somberly lit candles, hoisted anti-war signs, listened to an Arabic prayer chant and some words of inspiration, and left. 

Most rush-hour pedestrians breezed by, declining protest leaflets. But a jogger, clearly upset by talk of peace, waved his arm, uttered an obscenity, shouted “Death to them all!” and sprinted away. 

Nearby, Patrick Faherty, a 15-year-old Boston student, watched with two friends at a distance. “They want peace? They don’t want to go to war? I hate that. Thousands of people are killed. I would actually want to go to war,” he said. “I get too mad to talk about it,” he said. He too stomped away. 

Kevin Martin, director of Washington-based Peace Action, said some activists have been subjected to hate mail and even death threats. 

“It’s understandable that out of people’s fear and anger of the Sept. 11 attacks that they would support a war,” he said. “I do think we need to be sensitive to people’s ... questions about personal security, which they really haven’t had since World War II.” 

Even some lifelong protest veterans feel torn. Charles Deemer, a writer who teaches at Portland State University, in Oregon, quit the movement. 

“When a nation is under attack, the first decision must be whether to surrender or to fight,” he wrote in an open letter to a local newspaper. “I believe there is no middle ground here: you either fight or you don’t fight, and doing nothing amounts to surrender.” 

Wishing his old comrades well, he advised them to work out new strategies. For starters, he suggested marchers carry American flags to make their cultural allegiance clear. 

Many activists are putting aside old anti-war mantras like “give peace a chance,” which risks sounding naive or irrelevant in a country that feels itself under attack. Their new rallying cry is “No More Victims!” In the post-Sept. 11 world, they hope to find heightened compassion for civilian bystanders anywhere. 

“If the killing of the people in the World Trade Center was wrong, then why kill more people?” asked Michael Borkson, a Boston protester with a guitar slung over his shoulder. 

Activists are for the first time coordinating a mass mobilization on the Internet. A unified message is emerging: The attacks of Sept. 11 were criminal acts of mass murder, and the attackers should be pursued by diplomatic and legal means. War will make domestic terrorism more likely, destabilize countries like Pakistan, and make the world more dangerous in the end. 

The peace movement is also declaring a common cause with Islamic and Arab rights advocates. Peace activists are demanding stronger protection for civil liberties, defending the rights of Arab-Americans, and even teaching followers the rudiments of Islam. 

They hope to turn up anti-war pressure in coming days, especially if the fighting drags on or turns bloodier. But Joseph Gerson, an activist at the American Friends Service Committee, said, “If we suffer another serious attack right here in the United States, that’s going to come as a blow” to the anti-war movement, too. 

Q: Recently my daughter visited – with her puppy, who promptly gnawed off an area around the corner of two wooden windowsills in the bedroom. How can I repair these without replacing the whole sill? They are wood with a stain finish. Thanks! 

A: If you haven’t already learned your lesson, a growing puppy will chew on anything in sight. They especially like doors, carpets and the legs of fine furniture. 

Sometimes the easiest and most cost-effective means of repair is to remove the existing damaged material and replace it with new material. This is usually the case if the damage is extensive and the material in question can be easily replaced. Removing a wood windowsill can be a major undertaking, so we suggest that you try rebuilding it with an epoxy or two-part wood filler. 

The fact that the windowsill is stained rather than painted makes the repair task a touch more challenging, but not something that can’t be accomplished with a bit of patience. Start by removing any loose material, using a file and sandpaper. The surface must be clean, dry and free of grease and oil. Use a small drill bit (3/32 or so) to drill multiple holes in the face of the damaged windowsill. The holes will help the wood filler bond to the wood. 

Mix the two parts (filler and hardener) per the directions, and immediately apply the paste to the repair area using a putty knife. Apply more material than is needed and use the putty knife to tool the material to match the profile of the windowsill. You’ll need to work quickly since the filler will only be workable for about 10 minutes. 

After about 20 minutes to 30 minutes the repair will be sufficiently hard for you to be able to finish shaping the profile using a sharp modeling knife, plane, file and sandpaper. Since epoxy wood fillers can’t be stained, we suggest that you use paint to “faux finish” the repaired area to blend in with the existing stain. 

Now you have a better idea of what to do if your daughter’s puppy tries to make a meal out of another part of your house. 

For more home improvement tips and information, visit our Web site at www.onthehouse.com. 

James and Morris Carey are feature writers for The Associated Press

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — V.S. Naipaul, a writer of aching humor and grim reality, won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for his “incorruptible scrutiny” of postcolonial society and his critical assessments of Muslim fundamentalism. 

Naipaul, 69, a British novelist and essayist born in Trinidad to parents of Indian descent, started with the West Indian island as his first subject. He extended his writings to include India, Africa, “America from south to north,” England and the Islamic communities of Asia. 

The Nobel Literature Prize, first awarded to French author Sully Prudhomme in 1901, is worth $943,000 in this centennial year. 

“I am utterly delighted. This is an unexpected accolade,” Naipaul said in a statement issued by publishing agency Colman Getty. “It is a great tribute to both England, my home, and to India, home of my ancestors.” 

The 215-year-old Swedish Academy singled out his 1987 autobiographical novel, “The Enigma of Arrival,” saying the author created an “unrelenting image of the placid collapse of the old colonial ruling culture and the demise of European neighborhoods.” 

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul left Trinidad at the age of 18, when he traveled to England to study at Oxford. Naipaul, whose other famous books include “A House for Mr. Biswas” and “A Bend in the River,” writes in English. 

The prize committee also pointed to his travel books and documentary works in which he criticizes Muslim fundamentalism in Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia and Pakistan in “Among the Believers” (1981) and “Beyond Belief” (1998). 

Academy head Horace Engdahl conceded this year’s choice might be seen as political in the wake of terror attacks in the United States and the American retaliation. “The present situation perhaps will make room for a more muted reaction,” he said. “I don’t think we will have violent protests from the Islamic countries and if they take the care to read his travel books from that part of the world they will realize that his view of Islam is a lot more nuanced.” 

“What he’s really attacking in Islam is a particular trait that it has in common with all cultures that conquerors bring along, that it tends to obliterate the preceding culture,” he said. At a reading in London last week, Naipaul condemned what he called the “calamitous effect” of Islam and compared it to colonialism. 

“To be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say ‘My ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn’t matter,”’ he said. Naipaul has the reputation of being a tough-minded, misanthropic man who does not engage in such literary rituals as publishing parties and flattering blurbs for his peers. In “Sir Vidia’s Shadow,” a highly unflattering book published in 1998, former friend Paul Theroux wrote that “he elevated crankishness as the proof of his artistic temperament.” 

In recent remarks, Naipaul mocked E.M. Forster, author of “A Passage to India” and other novels. “He just knew the court and a few middle-class Indians and a few garden boys whom he wished to seduce,” Naipaul said in an interview with the Literary Review. He also took on James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” saying that “Joyce was going blind and I can’t understand the work of a blind writer.” 

In fiction and nonfiction, Naipaul has described the upheaval of newly independent nations and the people who live with one foot in the remnants of their ancient culture and one in the culture of their colonial masters. 

“The history I carried with me, together with the self-awareness that had come with my education and ambition, had sent me into the world with a sense of glory dead,” Naipaul wrote in “The Enigma of Arrival.” 

Martin Amis, the British novelist and critic, said he was delighted by Naipaul’s win.  

“His level of perception is of the highest, and his prose has become the perfect instrument for realizing those perceptions on the page,” Amis sai. 

d, adding that Naipaul’s travel writing “is perhaps the most important body of work of its kind in the second half of the century.” 

The academy cited Naipaul for “having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.” 

Last year’s winner was little-known exiled Chinese novelist and playwright Gao Xingjian, a French citizen. His award was denounced by the Chinese government as political. Italy’s Dario Fo and Germany’s Guenter Grass are other recent winners with strong political views. 

The 18 lifetime members of the academy make the selection in deep secrecy at one of their weekly Thursday meetings and nominees are not publicly revealed for 50 years. 

Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, offered only vague guidance about the prizes in his will, saying only the award should go to those who “shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” and “who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.” The awards always are handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. 

The Nobels started Monday with the naming of medicine prize winners, followed by the physics award on Tuesday and chemistry and economics on Wednesday. 

The peace prize is to be announced on Friday in Oslo, Norway. 

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea lacks food, electricity and other basic necessities, but the impoverished country has no shortage of propaganda-inspired heroes, from a mother of eight to a pneumatic hammer that was honored for its role in a rail project. 

The honor is not just reserved for the usual suspects, such as top officials or brave soldiers slain in battle. The North’s totalitarian regime has given the title of hero to a woman who gave birth to eight children, a woman who donated 500 pigs to military units over 20 years and soldiers who supposedly jumped into a fire to save a portrait of the nation’s late founder, Kim Il Sung. 

Kim is, of course, North Korea’s hero of heroes. Many people, including soldiers and high-ranking officials, marked the 56th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party on Wednesday by laying flowers before the Pyongyang palace that houses Kim’s embalmed body. 

Last week, the country named a 15-ton pneumatic hammer as a national hero for “producing many parts necessary for railway transportation and the industrialization of the country,” according to state-run media. 

With its economy in shambles, North Korea needs morale-boosters. It launched a “learn-from-heroes” campaign in 1979, naming buildings after heroes and exhorting the hungry public to remain loyal to the communist regime. 

“With little to offer, it uses the hero’s award as a propaganda tool,” said Hong Song-kuk, an analyst at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles policy toward the North. 

Kim’s son and successor, Kim Jong Il, often gives job promotions, new apartments, televisions or other rewards to proclaimed heroes. 

The industrial hammer is not the nation’s first inanimate hero. Last year, North Korea awarded a hero’s title to a gingko tree. During the 1950-1953 Korean War, a U.S. plane crashed into the tree while trying to destroy a North Korean military vehicle underneath it, according to the North’s media. 

The United States fought on the South’s side during the Korean War and 37,000 American soldiers are stationed in South Korea to guard against the North. 

Since it was founded in 1948, North Korea has doled out so many hero’s titles that South Korean officials gave up keeping records. 

To encourage population growth, North Korea once described women who had many children as “Heroes of Labor.” 

It is unclear whether the North, which needs outside aid to feed its 22 million people, is still encouraging women to have more children. 

Female marathoner Jong Song Ok became a “Hero of the Republic” – the highest honor North Korea can give a citizen – after she won a gold medal at the World Championships in Spain in 1999. 

Jong, who was awarded a posh apartment and a Mercedes Benz along with her hero’s title, was quoted as saying that she ran “picturing Kim Jong Il in her mind.”

NEW YORK — Boosted by some healthier-than-expected earnings reports, Wall Street surged higher Thursday, carrying the Dow Jones industrials and other market indexes to levels last seen before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

The Dow’s close left it just 195 points below its close of Sept. 10; the blue chips have now recovered 85 percent of the 1,369 points they lost after the attacks. The Nasdaq composite and Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes finished just above their closes of a month ago. 

Analysts again cautioned that the advance, which followed another spurt higher Wednesday, should not be read as a fundamental market recovery or a sign that investors are no longer worried about fallout from the terrorist attacks or U.S. retaliation. 

“The passage of time has healed some of the wounds ... and investors are feeling a little better,” said Matt Brown, head of equity management at Wilmington Trust. “This is a rebound, though. 

“I think the market is still going to be pretty reactive to both good and bad news. If there were further developments domestically on the terrorism front, that would be very negative for the market.” 

On Sept. 10, the last day of trading before the attacks, the Dow closed at 9,605.51, while the S&P 500 was at 1,092.54. The Nasdaq closed that day at 1,695.38. 

After the market closed, the FBI issued a blunt warning “that there may be additional terrorist attacks” over the next several days. Analysts have cautioned that another attack on U.S. soil could set the market back again. 

But Thursday, the one-month anniversary of the attacks, investors seemed determined to buy. Stocks soared for most of the session. Although the gains faded briefly late in the afternoon on profit-taking, the market ultimately snapped back. 

Better-than-expected earnings news from Genentech and ETrade cheered investors who have been bracing themselves for dismal results as U.S. companies issue their third-quarter reports this month. 

Investors bid biotech company Genentech up $3.50 to $44.30 after the company exceeded third-quarter expectations. E-broker ETrade also turned in a better performance than Wall Street had anticipated, sending its stock up $1.19 to $7.85. 

General Electric gained $1.03 to $38.94 on third-quarter results that met expectations. And Yahoo gained $1.57 to $12.50 after meeting analysts’ third-quarter projections but slightly reducing its forecast for the current quarter. 

“The fact that a company like GE was able to meet toned-down expectations is again the lack of a negative being a positive for the market,” said Charles G. Crane, strategist at Victory SBSF Capital Management. “The sense I have is that we could retest the September lows before the end of the year or we could do it within the next four or five trading sessions. We really don’t know.” 

Tech stocks were broadly higher, translating into a nearly 11 percent gain on the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which rose 46.01 to 474.60. Strong performance by the sector is considered a sign that an economic recovery could be beginning, but there have been false starts before and stock prices in the sector have fallen considerably. Ciena rose $2.76 to $15.24. 

Cisco rose $1.31 to $16.46, above the level where it traded before the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Pharmaceutical stocks, in turn, fell as investors cashed in gains from a sector that has done well recently when Wall Street searched for less risky investments. Johnson & Johnson dropped $1.10 to $54.94. 

Investors appeared unfazed by data showing unemployment remains a problem for the economy. 

The Labor Department reported that for the week ending Oct. 6, new jobless claims fell by a seasonally adjusted 67,000 to 468,000, a level suggesting a very weak job market. The more stable four-week moving average rose last week to 463,000, the highest level since Dec. 14, 1991, when the country was in its last recession. 

The worst September retail sales in two decades also failed to stop the broader market’s advance, chiefly because the disappointing results weren’t surprising given consumers’ anxieties after the Sept. 11 attacks. Gap rose 15 cents to $13.73, despite reporting a 17 percent drop in sales at stores open at least a year.. 

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 3.8 percent. In Europe, Germany’s DAX index gained 2.3 percent, Britain’s FT-SE 100 advanced 0.2 percent, and France’s CAC-40 climbed 0.3 percent

SEAL BEACH — The Boeing Co. will stake near-term growth on its space, communications and missile operations instead of commercial aircraft, which has long been the core of the company, Boeing executives said Thursday. 

The commercial aircraft industry, dominated by Boeing, has traditionally counted on annual growth rates of 4 percent to 6 percent in air travel. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, aviation officials anticipate a 20 percent drop in air travel. 

As much as $35 billion of Boeing’s annual $57 billion in revenue comes from its commercial aircraft business, with the balance coming from its rocket, satellite, missile and military aircraft businesses. 

Over the next three to five years, Boeing Vice Chairman Harry Stonecipher said, the percent of revenue from commercial aircraft will shrink to less than 50 percent. 

“You are going to see a switch – where commercial aircraft will still be very large, but the others will see growth,” Stonecipher said. 

Boeing, which moved its headquarters this summer from Seattle to Chicago, is aggressively trying to prove to investors that it is more than a commercial aircraft company. 

As commercial aircraft business stays soft, the company is likely to focus more on its plants in Southern California, the base of its space and communications units, which employ 43,000 workers. The company also builds its 717 airliners and C-17 military transport planes in Southern California. 

Stonecipher and Jim Albaugh, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Space & Communications in Seal Beach, met with reporters to update them on the company. 

Boeing has already announced plans to lay off as many as 30,000 of its employees. Stonecipher said he did not expect that number to change. None of the Southern California workers are included in the layoff plan. 

The near term will be decisive for Boeing. Its next-generation rocket, the Delta 4, slated for launch in April 2002, and the Pentagon will announce Oct. 26 who will build the Joint Strike Fighter, either Boeing or Lockheed Martin Corp. 

The deal to build as many as 6,000 of the next-generation warplanes could be worth well in excess of $200 billion. Versions of the aircraft, based on a common design, will serve the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines as well as Britain’s Royal Navy. 

The all-or-nothing contract will not harm Boeing’s bottom line if Lockheed is selected. 

“Win or lose, it won’t have a big impact in the near term. It will have an emotional impact. It will have a stock impact,” Stonecipher said. 

Boeing said it will press ahead with development of the Sonic Cruiser, a 200- to 300-passenger airliner that would fly just under the speed of sound at altitudes some 10,000 feet higher than current airliners typically fly. The jet is slated to fly around 2007. 

It is an answer to Airbus Industrie’s A380, a superjumbo jet that will seat 555 passengers and is to go into service in 2006. 

“It’s going ahead as planned,” Stonecipher said. 

The company expects to see growth in its work on building a national ballistic missile defense program as well as commercial satellite, missile and air traffic management businesses. 

The company is also involved in retrofitting or boosting security equipment for existing airliners, but that work is not expected to have a major impact on revenues. 

Plans to introduce broadband, Web and e-mail access for passengers on commercial carriers are expected to be delayed. 

LOS ANGELES — An attorney told a jury Thursday that biotech giant Genentech Inc. tried to avoid paying more than $400 million in royalties to City of Hope Medical Center involving drugs developed by the hospital over the past 25 years. 

The claim by attorney Morgan Chu came during closing arguments in the lawsuit filed by City of Hope in Los Angeles Superior Court. 

Chu compared the situation to a marriage gone awry in describing what he called “a string of broken promises” by Genentech involving a contract with the medical facility. 

“City of Hope fully performed,” Chu said. “They did the research and they transferred all the patent rights to Genentech.” 

Genentech has denied shortchanging City of Hope. Lawyers for the firm, which posted sales of $1.7 billion last year, will present closing arguments after Chu. The case is expected to go to the jury by early next week. 

At the heart of the $400 million legal dispute is a contract signed before anyone knew billions would be made selling bioengineered drugs. 

The 1976 agreement between South San Francisco-based Genentech and the City of Hope in Duarte provided that Genentech would fund research that eventually produced drugs used in the production of human insulin and growth hormones. 

In return, Genentech would own whatever patents would be issued and would pay the hospital a 2 percent royalty on the sales of certain drugs resulting from the research. 

Chu has contended the biotech firm concealed 27 licenses with drug companies to avoid paying $340 million in royalties. 

The hospital claims it is now owed more than $400 million, including interest charges. 

The case is indicative of growing pains within the biotech field. In the past, researchers got much of their funding from the government.  

But now that their research is seeing new uses in the growing biotech industry, they are finding themselves embroiled in more and more lawsuits over patents and royalties. 

As the billions of dollars in profits continue to grow in the industry, so will the number of lawsuits,  

City of Hope attorney Glenn Krinsky has said in an interview. 

“As the biotech industry has matured and become more of a significant impact on the national and global economy, naturally where the money is is often where the disputes are,” he said. 

A key dispute in the case is whether DNA actually made in City of Hope laboratories must be used in the creation of drugs in order to trigger royalty payments to the hospital. 

City of Hope has argued that Genentech is profiting from patents based on its discoveries and must pay royalties anytime Genentech licenses the patents to a drug company. 

Genentech countered that City of Hope was an independent contractor hired to produce strands of DNA as well as research.  

Therefore, royalties are only due on drugs made possible by the patents and the DNA produced by City of Hope, lawyers claim.

ZURICH, Switzerland — Swissair has been granted protection from creditors in the United States and Canada, allowing it to obtain fuel for its North Atlantic flights, the airline said Thursday. 

Switzerland’s largest bank, meanwhile, said it had been contacted about Swissair by the U.S.-based buyout firm Texas Pacific Group. 

“We are mulling over how to answer,” said Larissa Alghisi, spokeswoman for UBS AG. 

The decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in North America followed a similar move within Switzerland. Under Chapter 11, a company can continue to operate its business free of creditor claims while it develops a financial reorganization plan. 

The airline was forced to ground its jets for two days last week as it didn’t have enough money for fuel and landing fees. The plunge in air traffic after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States made it impossible for the airline to stay intact, having lost $1.8 billion last year because of a disastrous expansion policy. 

The airline announced a new, reduced timetable valid through Oct. 27, when its regional subsidiary Crossair takes over in a shake-up organized by Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse. 

It envisages 165 flights per day – including the Geneva to New York connection, compared to 302 previously. 

UBS said Wednesday that the $832 million that it had jointly offered with Credit Suisse Group would need to be increased if the airline is to be saved. 

The German financial news agency VWD said that Texas Pacific planned to offer $7 billion for the Swissair Group. Swissair and Texas Pacific declined to comment on the report. 

Alghisi declined to go into detail about Texas Pacific’s approach to UBS. 

Texas Pacific, which has a reputation for tightening financial controls and turning around troubled companies, manages a series of private equity funds with over $7 billion in committed capital. 

Texas Pacific has yet to contact the estate administrator, which oversees Swissair’s legal proceedings on creditor protection and has to approve decisions about the group’s assets, a spokesman said. 

MURMANSK, Russia— The docking of the gutted wreck of the Kursk nuclear submarine was postponed until next week because of the need to more thoroughly prepare for the delicate process, the Russian navy said Thursday. 

The preparations for the docking began as scheduled Thursday when Dutch and Russian experts began attaching the two huge pontoons needed to hoist the submarine into dry dock at a ship-repair plant in Roslyakovo, near Murmansk. However, the docking, which had previously been set for Saturday afternoon, was put off until an unspecified day next week, said Northern Fleet spokesman Capt. Vladimir Navrotsky. 

He said the decision to put off the docking was made on the request of Dutch engineers who said they wanted to make additional calculations and checks to ensure that the bulky combination of barge, submarine and pontoons enters the dock without a hitch. 

“Because of the unique character and complexity of the docking, we agreed to perform it next week,” Navrotsky said. “There must be no rush.” 

Earlier this week, the carcass of the Kursk was raised from the Barents Sea floor by the Dutch Mammoet-Smit International consortium. The unprecedented salvage operation took place more than a year after the submarine sank, killing all its crew of 118. 

Clamped beneath the Giant 4 barge, which lifted it from the seabed on 26 steel cables, the wreck arrived in the waters of the Roslyakovo ship repair plant late Wednesday. 

For about eight hours until early Thursday, officials performed a series of complex checks to ensure that the Kursk’s twin 190-megawatt nuclear reactors were not leaking radiation. 

“The checks have confirmed that the radiation situation remained normal,” Navrotsky said. 

Officials have said the reactors were safely shut down when the disaster occurred. But the risk of a potential radiation leak in the rich fishing grounds of the Barents Sea was a key reason cited by the Russian government for the costly, precarious operation to lift the Kursk. 

Concern about a possible radiation leak prompted Roslyakovo officials to work out contingency evacuation plans and boost stocks of iodine. 

Officials will keep constant watch over the radiation levels on Kursk, using a stream of information from gauges installed on its hull and other measuring devices on ships around the submarine and on shore. A screen erected on a Roslyakovo street constantly displays radiation levels to assuage local residents’ fears. 

Once the Kursk is put in dry dock, officials will remove the remains of the crew. Navrotsky said officials only expect to find 30 or 40 bodies, because the others were likely pulverized by the powerful explosions that sank the submarine during naval exercises Aug. 12, 2000.

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian militant from the Hamas group blew himself up while trying to plant a bomb along a road used frequently by Israelis in the West Bank, Israel said Thursday. Hamas said he died under “heroic” circumstances. 

Though casualties have been low on both sides of the Mideast conflict in recent days, Israel says the Palestinians have failed to arrest militants and meet other commitments under a truce reached three weeks ago. 

Israel has been “compelled to deal with Palestinian terrorism directly and use all means at its disposal in order to foil planned attacks,” a government statement said. In the latest incident, the dismembered body of 22-year-old Hamas activist Hani Rawajbeh was found early Thursday near a road used by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers. A soldier was slightly wounded Wednesday in a bomb explosion on the road. 

Hamas said in a statement that Rawajbeh died while carrying out a “heroic operation,” but did not give details. Hamas has planted numerous roadside bombs in the past year of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, and a number of Hamas activists have been killed by explosives that went off prematurely. 

Israel, meanwhile, cut the list of Palestinian militants it has demanded the Palestinians arrest from 108 to just four “of the highest priority.” 

An Israeli statement said the Palestinians had arrested only two of the four. However, one of those Israel said was still at large, Atef Abbayat, has been in Palestinian police custody in Bethlehem, according to Palestinian security officials. 

In violence Thursday, two Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, when their car was fired on in the West Bank. Palestinians said Israelis fired on the car, according to Army Radio. The military said it was checking the report. Both Palestinian and Israeli vehicles have been hit by gunfire in the area in recent months. 

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian police released dozens of protesters detained this week during a violent anti-U.S. rally, Hamas said. 

Two people were killed and dozens were hurt during the confrontation Monday, when Palestinian police exchanged gunfire with protesters from the Islamic University in Gaza City, many of them Hamas supporters who denounced the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan and expressed support for suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. It was the worst internal Palestinian fighting in years. 

Islamic University student council member Imad al-Faid said those responsible for the gunfire should be put on trial. “We have a legitimate right to demonstrate and to express our view in support of our Muslim brothers suffering from American aggression,” said al-Faid, 21, a Hamas member. “We are suffering from the same aggression,” he said. 

Monday’s confrontation increased tensions between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian leader says he is committed to a Sept. 26 cease-fire reached with Israel, though Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups have refused to honor the truce. 

Speaking Thursday on a visit to Greece, Arafat said, “We will not allow any extremist groups to break up national unity.” 

He also accused Israel of the “worst kind of terrorism” in its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 

According to a poll published Thursday, 57 percent of Palestinians oppose the truce deal, while 39 percent support it. 

In addition, almost 90 percent of Palestinians oppose U.S. airstrikes against Afghanistan, while 26 percent believe last month’s terror attacks on the United States were consistent with Islamic law, the poll found. 

The survey was conducted by the West Bank’s Bir Zeit University, which said it was the first poll in the Arab world gauging public opinion in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. 

The survey, which polled 1,200 Palestinians and had a margin of error of 3 percent, was conducted before U.S. attacks on Afghanistan began Sunday. 

Economist George Akerlof took used cars and came up with a new model demonstrating how buyers and sellers interact, becoming one of three Californians to win a Nobel Prize Wednesday. 

Akerlof shared the prize with Michael Spence of Stanford University and Joseph E. Stiglitz at Columbia University. The third California winner, K. Barry Sharpless of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, shared the chemistry prize. 

Akerlof was cited for his work analyzing the market for used cars. He determined that the problem was asymmetric information – sellers knew more about the cars than buyers, who worried they were getting stuck with a “lemon.” The result was that the market price tended to be set at “lemon” levels, ultimately driving sellers of good cars out of the market. 

“This prize is not a prize for me. It’s a prize for the economics profession,” said Akerlof, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. 

His research has since been broadened into other areas, such as health insurance, where the opposite situation exists – buyers have more information than sellers about their health, forcing rates up. 

The economics winners laid the foundation in the 1970s for a general theory about how players with differing amounts of information affect financial markets. 

Their contributions “form the core of modern information economics,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a written announcement. 

Sharpless, 60, won half of the chemistry prize for research that opened up a new pathway to create medicines, including some that help treat Parkinson’s disease. The other half of the award was shared by William S. Knowles of St. Louis and Ryoji Noyori of Nagoya University in Japan. 

The discovery came when Sharpless and Noyori found that by using a chemical made of tartaric acid and titanium they could isolate one-half of a molecule. 

“It was a eureka moment,” he said. 

At a news conference, Akerlof said he was “totally thrilled,” but still a little stunned by the honor. He began his remarks by thanking his wife, Janet Yellen, sitting in the front row of the audience, who has been “wonderful ever since the very first day I met her.” 

Yellen is also a UC Berkeley professor, and was on President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. 

Akerlof, 61, was the second consecutive Berkeley winner of the economics Nobel, known formally as the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences. Last year, Berkeley professor Daniel McFadden shared the prize. 

“This is becoming a habit,” Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl said. 

In keeping with tradition, Akerlof will get a reserved parking spot, a coveted honor on the crowded Cal campus. 

Akerlof said when he first got the phone call saying he’d won, “I didn’t know if it was a joke or not.” 

Spence was on vacation in Hawaii when he received the news. 

“It’s very exciting. I think all of us in the academic world do what we do for the fun of it,” he said. “It’s really wonderful to have the work recognized.” 

The three economics winners, who share a $943,000 prize, all know each other and kept in close contact while they were working, Spence, 58, said. 

“We were all working on different facets of the same problem, but we talked to each other all the time. Academics do that,” he said. “I was very excited about the work they were doing.” 

Sharpless and his family celebrated with morning champagne at their home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. 

“It feels very good,” he said. “It’s been a lot of years since the discovery was made — Jan. 18, 1980. To be honest, for the last 20 years, I’ve been teased by my colleagues” about when the work might be recognized. 

Berkeley has had 18 Nobel Prize winners and Stanford has had 21. 

The Nobel Prizes for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, and were first awarded in 1901. The economics prize was established by the Central Bank of Sweden in 1968 as a memorial to Nobel. 

The prizes are always presented to the winners on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. To mark the 100th anniversary of the prizes, all living laureates have been invited to the ceremonies this year, with some 150 expected in Stockholm and 30 in Oslo. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Nobel site: http://www.nobel.se 

Akerlof’s home page: http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/akerlof/ 

Spence home page: http://gobi.stanford.edu/facultybios/bio.asp?ID156 

Noyori: http://www-noyori.os.chem.nagoya-u.ac.jp 

Sharpless: www.scripps.edu/chem/sharpless/kbs.html 

Thursday, Oct. 11

Community Health  

Commission Meeting 

6:45 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. 

South Berkeley Senior Center 

2939 Ellis Street 

Commissioners will brainstorm to determine major issues of concern regarding Alta Bates. 644-6109 

Resident Advisory  

Board Meeting 

4 p.m. - 6 p.m. 

East Bay Community Law Center 

3122 Shattuck Ave 

Review Discussion and Possible Action on Draft Agency Annual Plan Update and thirty minutes of public comment. There will be refreshments. 

Free Depression Screenings 

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. 

University Health Services, Tano Center 

2222 Bancroft Way 

Screenings will include a written self-test followed by an interview with a counselor. Referals for follow-up evaluation and treatment will be provided. 

Commonwealth Club:  

John Dean, Former Counsel  

to President Nixon 

5:30 p.m. 

Radisson Hotel 

200 Marina Blvd. 

Author of The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist presided over the impeachment trial of Clinton and spearheaded the decision to shut down the Florida recount of the 2000 Election. $5 Students, $20 non-members.  

Paradise Restored? California After the Boom 

6 p.m. 

UC Berkeley Faculty Club 

Peter Schrag, long-time columnist for the Sacramento Bee, will discuss his research on California’s economic boom and its consequences. $35  

540-5678 www.berkeleyfacultyclub.com  

Berkeley Democratic Club 

7:30 p.m. 

Northbrae Community Church 

941 The Alameda 

UC Berkeley Professor of Political Science Bruce Cain will speak on the future of the Democratic Party after September 11th. The topic: A New Political Landscape: The Response to Terrorism and the Future of the Democratic Party. 843-3214 

Copwatch: Forum  

on Civil Liberties 

7 p.m. 

UC Berkeley 

145 Dwinelle Hall 

Due to September 11, our civil liberties are being challenged in Congress. Come find out what you can do. 548-0425 www.berkeleycopwatch.org 

Friday, Oct. 12

Will Star Wars Make Us Safe 

7 - 9 p.m. 

Redwood Gardens 

2951 Derby St. 

Panel of speakers will discuss President Bush’s proposed Missile Defense Program. The public is invited to contribute to this discussion. Sponsored by Women for Peace. 849-3020  

Saturday, Oct. 13

Shelter Operations 

9 a.m. - noon 

Office of Emergency Services 

997 Cedar St. 

Free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT). 981-5605 www.ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Farmers’ Market  

Fall Fruit Tasting 

10 a.m. - 3 p.m. 

Center St and Martin Luther King Way 

Free samples the whole range of fall fruit. There will be a wide variety of apples, pears and persimmons at a central location for taste-testing. 

548-3333 

Pow Wow and Indian Market 

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Civic Center Park 

Enjoy Native American foods, dancing and arts & crafts in Berkeley’s tenth annual Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration, this year honoring Mille Ketchesawno. 

595-5520 

Optics Fair 

noon - 4 p.m. 

Lawrence Hall of Science 

Explore the world of the unseen at the first-ever LHS Optics Fair featuring a variety of microscopes, binoculars, and hand lenses to try out and compare. Parents, teachers and children age 6 and up. 642-5132 

Sunday, Oct. 16 

Donna Lerew’s  

70th Birthday Concert 

8 p.m. 

Unitarian Universalist Church  

One Lawson Rd., Kensington 

The distinguished Bay Area violinist celebrates her 70th birthday with a retrospective concert featuring Musica Viva String Quartet and Rose Trio. $10.  

Free parking. 525-0302 

Monday, Oct. 15

Rite of Christian Initiation  

for Adults Inquiry Program 

7:30 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Parish 

2005 Berryman St. 

A program to learn everything you wanted to know about the Catholic Church but never had the chance to ask.  

526-4811 

Emergency Preparedness  

Workshop 

1:15 p.m. 

North Berkeley Senior Center 

1901 Hearst Ave 

Anna Swardenski speaks to help seniors and people with disabilities be more prepared in case of an emergency. 

Franciscanism,  

Understanding the Vision 

1 - 2 p.m. 

Franciscan School of Theology 

1712 Euclid Ave. 

Graduate Theological Union presents seminar exploring the lives, times and writings of and about Francis and Clare of Assisi. 848-5232 

Tuesday, Oct. 16

Berkeley Farmers’ Market 

2-7 p.m. 

Derby Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street 548-3333 

There is a certain madness that strikes the human species from time to time, and its presence has been strongly evident since Sept. 11. 

It is a delusion born out of a combination of two fixed ideas: One, a dream of a perfect, pure society – usually a return to an imagined golden age of the past. Two, a conviction that a specific group of “others” stands in the way of achieving that ideal. Out of this, a simple and powerful fantasy is constructed: the drama of the final solution. Eliminate the group that stands in the way, and the pure land will be attained. 

Adolf Hitler, not so long ago, persuaded a civilized, modern country to follow him in acting out that kind of a political fantasy. That time the dream was the creation of a pure and powerful Aryan nation, rooted in the eternal verities of blood and soil. Those standing in the way were of course the Jews and other minorities, such as Gypsies and homosexuals. We know what form the final solution took, and how much death and destruction and suffering resulted as the drama played itself out. 

This time Americans witnessed another kind of massacre, in the flames, dust and death in New York City. The players were different, the actions and the results were different, but the underlying psychological dynamic was strikingly similar. This time the fantasized pure society is an uncorrupted Islam, of a sort that has never existed in reality – untainted by secularism, deviance, inner dissent or foreign influence. 

The obstacle in the way of its achievement is America and, to a lesser extent, Israel. 

That kind of madness has spurred countless religious wars, but it can as easily fuel a more secular fantasy of “ethnic cleansing,” as happened recently in Serbia. It has a powerful appeal to human minds – especially in turbulent and confusing times – because it is clear and simple. It resolves our uncertainties and tells us what must be done. 

And at this point we should ask ourselves if we are immune to it. It would be easy to believe that we are. After all, America was instrumental in ending the Nazi nightmare, took on ethnic cleansing in Serbia and is now doing battle against the pure-land fantasies of Osama bin Laden. So it might seem to follow that we are the good guys – and the sane guys – ever on guard against such political pathologies. But it’s not that simple. 

In the current time of drawing together against such malevolence, we walk always on the edge of becoming its mirror image. We are tempted by the fantasy of a pure America, a safe and secure homeland that existed once and can be brought into being again, providing the evil Others can be eliminated. Listen to the lyrics of “America the Beautiful,” the song that seems to have caught the spirit of the times. The words are lovely and moving, but they also invite us to fantasize an America that never was – a land of gleaming alabaster cities, undimmed by human tears. A pure land that we might find again if only we could stamp out the Other: eliminate bin Laden, Al Qaida, all terrorism everywhere. 

But of course we can’t do that, any more than the terrorists can achieve their angry dream – and for the same reason: The world has not gotten kinder or wiser, but it has gotten smaller, and we are all stuck with one another – fundamentalist and secularist, East and West, North and South, rich and poor. 

For the first time in human history, we all live in the whole world. It may be a world full of hate, but it is more connected now than it has ever been, and it will be more connected next year than it is today. It is wrapped together by communications systems, economic activities, political relations, personal ties, and – although this seems to have slipped the media’s mind for the past few weeks – problems without 

boundaries such as AIDS and the threat of climate change. 

This confusing, mobile and hyperlinked world allows many different ways for people to live, but it has no space for pure lands. 

And there are many ways we can deal with the problems it presents – but we can expect no final solutions. 

PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson is the author of “The Future of the Self” (Tarcher Putnam, 1997) and “Evolution Isn’t What It Used To Be” (W.H. Freeman 1996).

924 Gilman Street Oct 12: One Line Drawing, Funeral Dinner, Diefenbaker, Till 7 Years Pass Over Him; Oct 13: Dead and Gone, Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Wormwood, Antagony; Most shows are $5 and start at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.  

Ashkenaz Oct 11: Grateful Dead DJ Night; Oct 12: Sambo NGO; Oct 13: Clinton Fearon, Dub Congress; Oct 14: Open Stage; Oct 16: Danubias; Oct 17: Cajun Cayotesl Oct 18: Greatful Dean DJ Night; Oct 19: Swing Session 1317 San Pablo Ave. 525-5054 www.ashkenaz.com 

Cal Performances Oct. 12 - 14: Fri. and Sat., 8:00 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Ballet Nacional De Cuba, $24 - $46; Oct. 17 and 18: 8 p.m. Cesaria Evora, $24 - $36; Oct. 19: 8 p.m. Karnak, $18 - $30. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Bancroft Way at Telegraph, 642-0212, tickets@calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Eli’s Mile High Club Every Friday, 10 p.m. Funky Fridays Conscious Dance Party with KPFA DJs Splif Skankin and Funky Man. $10; Sept. 3: 2 - 8 p.m. Big West Coast Harmonica Bash, afternoon benefit for Red Archibald. $10 donation; Doors open at 8 p.m. unless noted. 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. 655-6661 

Jupiter Oct. 11: Beatdown with DJ’s Delon, Yamu, and Add1; Oct. 12: Japonize Elephants; Oct. 13: J Dogs; All music starts at 8:00 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave. 843-7625 www.jupiterbeer.com  

Live Oak Concerts Oct. 14: A Harvest of Song, an evening of premiers of works, $8-10. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Rebecca Riots Oct. 12: 7:30 p.m. $20-23. Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 339-1832 

Synchronicity Oct. 14: 2 p.m. Piano and percussion duo fuses classical and jazz music into a visual experience. $10 adult, $5 child. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

Shafqat Ali Khan Oct. 20: 8 p.m. Concert of classical Ragaa, Sufi, Urdu, Persian Ghazel, and other popular musical styles from India. $20 general admission, $15 students. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. 845-8542 www.juliamorgan.org 

“Murder Dressed in Satin” by Victor Lawhorn, ongoing. A mystery-comedy dinner show at The Madison about a murder at the home of Satin Moray, a club owner and self-proclaimed socialite with a scarlet past. Dinner is included in the price of the theater ticket. $47.50 Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. 239-2252 www.acteva.com/go/havefun 

“Swanwhite” Through Oct. 21: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. A new translation of the Swedish Play that asks the question what good is romantic love, directed by Tom Clyde. $20, Sundays are “Pay What You Can”. Transparent Theater, 1901 Ashby Ave. 883-0305, www.virtuous.com 

“Orestes” Through Oct. 21: Fri. - Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. An adaptation of the classical play by Euripides that incorporates passages inspired or taken from various 20th century texts. Written by Charles Mee, Directed by Christopher Herold. $6-12. Zellerbach Playhouse on the UC Berkeley campus 642-8268 

“Approach” Through Oct. 27: Thur. - Sat., 8 p.m. An examination of the search for intimacy as our most precious form of survival. Written by Susan Wiegand, Directed by Katie Bales Frassinelli. $15 general admission, $10 students and seniors. Eighth Street Studio Theatre, 2525 8th St. 655-0813 www.shotgunplayers.org 

“36 Views” Through Oct. 28: Tues. 8 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m., Thu. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Thu., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m. w/ 2 p.m. matinee every other Sat., Sun. 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Written by Naomi Lizuka, Directed by Mark Wing-Davey. $10 - $54. Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949 www.berkeleyrep.org 

“Faye Sings Lady Day” Oct. 13: 8 p.m. & 10 p.m., Benefit concert for the Black Repertory Group in Berkeley. $10 - $15. Black Repertory Group, 3201 Adeline St. 849-9940  

“Lisa Picard is Famous” Oct. 12-19: Mocumentary chronicles New York actress who hopes to get more than a fleeting taste of fame when a racy cereal commercial brings her unexpected national notoriety. Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. 843-3456 

“Inside Editions” through Oct. 12: Nine printmakers exhibit their work. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tue. - Fri. Free. Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977 kala@kala.org 

“Census 2000: Asian Pacific Islander Americans” through Oct. 13; Wed. - Sat. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Asian Pacific Islander American artists in roughly the demographic proportions indicated by the recent census. Free. Pro Arts, 461 Ninth St., Oakland 763-9470  

“MWP Perspectives” Jon Orvik: One artist’s journey. Through Oct. 27 Tues. - Fri. 12 - 5 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 12 - 4 p.m. Solo artist exhibiting his journey through metal, wood and paint. Adapt Gallery and Design, 2834 College Ave. 649-8501 www.adaptgallery.com  

“50 Years of Photography in Japan 1951 - 2001” Through Nov. 5: An exhibition from The Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest daily newspaper with a national morning circulation of 10,300,000. Photographs of work, love, community, culture and disasters of Japan as seen by Japanese news photographers. Mon. - Fri. 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. U.C. Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, Hearst and Euclid. Free. 642-3383 

“Jesus, This is Your Life - Stories and Pictures by Kids” Through Nov. 16: California children, ages four through twelve, from diverse backgrounds present original artwork, accompanied by a story written by the artist. “Cleve Gray, Holocaust Drawings” Oct. 15 through Jan. 25: 21 works on paper inviting the viewer to consider the atrocity of the Holocaust in ways unattainable through words or text. Mon. - Thur. 8:30 a.m. -10 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sun. 12 p.m. - 7 p.m. Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

“Changing the World, Building New Lives: 1970s photographs of Lesbians, Feminists, Union Women, Disability Activists and their Supporters” Through Nov. 17: An exhibit of black and white photographs by Oakland photographer Cathy Cade, who captured the interrelationships of the different struggles for justice and social change. Gallery Hours, Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Free. 644-1400 cathycade@mindspring.com 

“The Whole World’s Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s” Through Dec. 16: A documentary photo exhibition which examines the rich history of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Wed. - Sun., noon - 5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., Live Oak Park. Free. 644-6893 

“Musee des Hommages” Masterworks by Guy Colwell Faithful copies of several artists from the pasts, including Titian’s “The Venus of Urbino,” Cezanne’s “Still Life,” Picasso’s “Woman at a Mirror,” and Botticelli’s “Primavera” Ongoing. Call ahead for hours. Atelier 9 2028 Ninth St. (at Addison) 841-4210 or visit www.atelier9.com 

Boadecia’s Books Oct. 12: Susan Gaines reads from her novel “Carbon Dream”; Oct. 18: Patricia Nell Warren reads from her novel “The Wild Man”, Oct. 22: J.M. Redmann reads from “Death By the Riverside”; All events start at 7:30 p.m. unless noted otherwise. All events are free. 398 Colusa Ave. 559-9184 www.bookpride.com 

Cody’s on 4th Street Oct 12: Cody’s For Kids- Rosemary Wells and Bunny Party; Harruet Lerber surveys “The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You’re Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted Betrayed or Desperate; Michael Chabon talks about The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; Studs Terkel reads from “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and hunger for Faith; Oct 18: Tamora Pierce talks about “Protector of the Small”; 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500 

Cody’s on Telegraph Ave. Oct 12: Elizabeth Royte examines “The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rainforest”; Oct 15: Amir Aczel poses The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention That Changed the World; Oct 16: Kip Fulbeck talks about “Paper Bullets”; Oct 18: Suzanne Antoneta & micah Perks talk about “Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir” and “Pagan Time: An American Childhood; All shows at 7:30 p.m.; 2454 Telegraph Ave. 845-7852 

Coffee Mill Poetry Series Oct. 16: 7 - 9 p.m. Steve Arntsen and Kathleen Dunbar followed by open mike reading. 3363 Grand Ave., Oakland 465-3935 ksdgk@earthlink.net 

Eastwind Books of Berkeley Oct. 13: Leonard Chang reads from “Over the Shoulder”; Oct. 20: Miriam Ching Louie reads from “Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take on the Global Factory”; 2066 University Ave. 548-2350 

Susan Griffin Oct. 12: 7 - 10 p.m. Presents slide show and discusses her latest book “The Book of Courtesans: A Catalogue of Their Virtues”. $10 refundable with book purchase. Gaia Arts and Cultural Center, 2116 Allston Way 848-4242  

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Fridays 9:30 - 11:45 a.m. or by appointment. Call ahead to make reservations. Free. University of California, Berkeley. 486-4387 

Golden Gate Live Steamers Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Lomas Cantadas Drive at the south end of Tilden Regional Park Small locomotives, meticulously scaled to size. Trains run Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Rides: Sunday, noon to 3 p.m., weather permitting. 486-0623  

Habitot Children’s Museum “Back to the Farm” An interactive exhibit gives children the chance to wiggle through tunnels, look into a mirrored fish pond, don farm animal costumes, ride on a John Deere tractor and more. “Recycling Center” Lets the kids crank the conveyor belt to sort cans, plastic bottles and newspaper bundles into dumpster bins. $4 adults; $6 children age 7 and under; $3 for each additional child age 7 and under. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Sundays, Memorial Day through Labor Day) Kittredge Street and Shattuck Avenue 647-1111 or www.habitot.org  

UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology Lobby, Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley “Tyrannosaurus Rex,” ongoing. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing. “Pteranodon” A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22-23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Free. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 642-1821 

UC Berkeley Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology will close its exhibition galleries for renovation. It will reopen in early 2002.  

University of California Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive has reopened after its summerlong seismic retrofit. “Martin Puryear: Sculpture of the 1990s” through Jan. 13; “The Dream of the Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951 - 1982)” through Dec. 16; “Face of Buddha: Sculpture from India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia” ongoing rotation through 2003; “Matrix 194: Jessica Bronson, Heaps, layers, and curls” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; “Matrix 192: Ceal Floyer 37’4”” Sept. 16 through Nov. 11; Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Thur. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way; Museum Galleries 2626 Bancroft Way; 642-0808 www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Lawrence Hall of Science “Within the Human Brain,” ongoing. Visitors test their cranial nerves, play skeeball, master mazes, match musical tones and construct stories inside a simulated “rat cage” of learning experiments. “Saturday Night Stargazing,” First and third Saturdays each month. 8 - 10 p.m., LHS plaza. Saturdays 12:30 - 3:30 p.m. $7 for adults; $5 for children 5-18; $3 for children 3-4. 642-5132 

Holt Planetarium Programs are recommended for age 8 and up; children under age 6 will not be admitted. $2 in addition to regular museum admission. “Constellations Tonight” Ongoing. Using a simple star map, learn to identify the most prominent constellations for the season in the planetarium sky. Daily, 3:30 p.m. $7 general; $5 seniors, students, disabled, and youths age 7 to 18; $3 children age 3 to 5 ; free children age 2 and younger. Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Centennial Drive, UC Berkeley 642-5132 or www.lhs.berkeley.edu  

Send arts events two weeks in advance to Calendar@berkeleydailyplanet.net, 2076 University, Berkeley 94704 or fax to 841-5694.

At a Tuesday evening question-and-answer session on the Common Ground school’s ill-fated Yosemite trip of last week, parents, teachers and students of the program soundly rejected blame and finger-pointing as responses to the alleged misbehavior that cut short a planned two-day series of classes out in nature. 

Instead, while admitting responsibility for overstepping “common sense,” by taking too large a group and making other misjudgments, the school’s leaders sought to emphasize the lessons learned and set the record straight on the misadventure’s root causes. 

“My biggest disappointment is in the press,” said Dana Richards, the teacher who co-leads the small “school” within Berkeley High School, criticizing what he termed a “culture of negativism and hype.” 

“The whole thing kind of fell apart from the get-go with Curry Village’s incompetence,” said Tammy Harkins, the school’s other co-leader, referring to the large tent city where the students stayed. 

The Common Ground leaders cut their planned two-day trip short on Oct. 1, after concluding that the group was too large to manage in a setting that did not lend itself to keeping proper track of students. Between 9 and 10 p.m. that night, Curry Village staff received numerous complaints from other guests, which a spokesperson for the park’s concession company said included vandalism, rock-throwing, shoplifting, noisiness and rowdiness. 

“I apologize to you as parents who care so much about the security and safety of your students,” Richards said Tuesday. “I can also honestly say that nothing happened at Yosemite that doesn’t happen every day at Berkeley High.” 

A spokesperson for Yosemite Concession Services, which runs Curry Village, said last week that “about 30” of the  

students had behaved inappropriately, out of a group of 330. 

Richards and Harkins distributed a letter explaining the events at last Thursday’s Back-to-School night, and said an unexpected change in the check-in time from last year’s smaller, smoother Common Ground trip had forced the sudden rearrangement of the students’ afternoon itineraries that Sunday. This and several other inconveniences caused by the Curry Village organization, they wrote, led to an after-dark check-in at tents scattered throughout the village, after which the complaints came in. 

Among the lessons Richards and others cited for future trips were to keep the student-teacher ratio at a maximum of 8-to-1, to work harder on identifying students’ interests to better place them in their activities, to include parents more fully in the planning, and to choose a more appropriate destination. 

Harkins also added that it had been a mistake to wait until 12:30 p.m. on the Monday to contact the high school administrators about the decision, made more than 12 hours earlier, to bring the students home a day early. Above all, the trip leaders said, they would not attempt to take such a large group on an overnight trip again. 

A discussion on marijuana use took up a long period of the meeting. Harkins said it had been “widespread,” and that trip leaders had considered turning the buses around on the way up after faculty on one bus saw smoke being blown from the back of another. Maliyah Coye, a junior who had been on the trip, suggested a double standard was at play. 

“I don’t know why it’s such a big deal, people smoking weed in Common Ground,” because “people smoke weed all the time” on the Berkeley High grounds, she said. 

A parent then rose and expressed concern that his ninth-grade daughter be given a clear signal that drug use was not tolerated. 

“I have not heard a defined drug policy,” the parent said. “Forget about Berkeley High, what about Common Ground?” 

The trip leaders said that drug use was not tolerated and that they were waiting for the facts to emerge more fully before considering any disciplinary action. 

“There will be consequences,” said Harkins. 

Principal Frank Lynch, who attended the meeting, said any response to misbehavior was “going to come up from Common Ground and their discussions.” 

“Since they were up there and we weren’t, they’re going to tell us what needs to be done,” Lynch said. 

Board of Education Vice President Shirley Issel, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting, said the board and the administration needed to help the small schools with policies on discipline, field trips and the like. 

“Some teachers feel they can’t turn to the administration because they feel it is either too overwhelmed or doesn’t have the capacity to meet their needs, so they try to do it themselves,” Issel said. “But as we can see, it really can’t work.” 

Two parents suggested the trip might have been scheduled for the end of the year rather than the beginning, in order to exclude those who had not “earned” participation with their behavior. But Coye disagreed.  

“As a community, as Common Ground, as parents we need to get together to help those students,” she said. Later in the meeting, the audience applauded when she added: “I think it’s good that this came out early in year. These people are students, and their problems are everyone’s problems.” 

Lynch also praised the small school for its attempt to bring everyone to Yosemite. “Their whole intent, because Common Ground is a small learning community, was to be able to give the opportunity to all students instead of singling out who could go and who could not go,” he said. “So their heart was in the right place.” 

Several students and parents also said the students had a good experience at Yosemite on the abbreviated second day. 

“We basically did everything we set out to do,” said Wendy Ellen, a world dance teacher. 

“I enjoyed myself highly,” said Michael Cochran, Ellen’s son, a student on the trip.  

Another teacher, Ellen Bracken, said “a lot of growth” came out of Tuesday’s forum. “Instead of some teachers saying, let’s get this person and kick them out, they were looking for some more long-term solutions.” 

At the end of the meeting, a parent congratulated Richards, saying, “Thanks for not making our kids into snitches.”

Editor, 

John McDougal(Forum Oct. 8) mis-stated purpose of Representative Barbara Lee’s vote. What she was voting against was giving up the responsibility of Congress to decide issues of war and peace. 

It was irresponsible of Congress to give the Chief Executive a blank check, unlimited ability to do whatever he saw fit, both abroad and at home, to wage war on amorphous “terrorists.” Representative Lee knew this, even apparently John McDougal does not. 

Which answers his last question whether Representative Lee would have voted differently for a different Chief Exec. No, her vote would be the same, were the Exec Gore, God, or John McDougal. 

Adam David Miller 

Berkeley 

When Bette’s Oceanview Diner considered opening a “Bette’s To Go” branch in the sleepy neighborhood of Northbrae, many people who live in the community rose up against the plan.  

They wrote impassioned e-mails to the city’s planning staff, and attended the Sept. 13 meeting of the Zoning Adjustments Board to denounce the proposal. 

The majority of the opposition feared that because Bette’s would sell pastries in addition to meals, the popular Fourth Street diner would overwhelm the Hopkins Street Bakery, a local favorite.  

“It makes no sense to allow a proprietor (whose only motive is sheer profit) to potentially displace a much-loved established,” business wrote neighbor Katie Wenc. 

“It would be a terrible loss to the community if (Hopkins Street Bakery) were forced out of business,” said David Tepper. “Let (Bette’s) stay where they are – on Fourth Street – and leave this area free of them.” 

Bette Kroening, the owner of Bette’s Oceanview Diner, eventually withdrew her application to the Zoning Adjustments Board. In an interview Wednesday, she said that “it was a painful process,” and that she did not want to cause division in a neighborhood that she loved. 

Now, with the Bette’s project dead, it appears that a different establishment will go into the vacant storefront Kroening had wanted. 

Another bakery. 

On Tuesday, Jeff Dodge of La Farine, an upscale bakery on College Avenue in Oakland, filled out papers with the Planning Department on the site formerly occupied by Made to Order, a small takeout grocery. 

La Farine, which has been at its College Avenue site in Oakland for 25 years, will sell not only pastries, but tarts, cakes, cookies and specialty breads – an offering very similar to that of the Hopkins Street Bakery.  

City planning officials said that because La Farine’s scope of operations are similar to Made to Order’s, their application is “by right” – it does not require any additional approval by planning staff or the ZAB. However, the ZAB may choose to hold hearings on La Farine’s proposal to expand the site’s hours of operation.  

Made to Order’s permit allowed it to operate from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; La Farine would like to be open between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday. 

ZAB member Mike Issel said that the he was struck by the irony of the situation. Issel said that too often, neighbors and ZAB members try to engage in “zoning by intimidation.” 

“I hope that citizens in the future, will take a more practical approach to answering their fears,” he said. “We often see problems like those raised at the hearing on Bette’s, and they can often be worked out through dialogue between the parties.” 

Reza Jahansouz, owner of the Hopkins Street Bakery, had harsh words for his probable new neighbor. 

“I’m going to put them out of business,” he said. “Our customers are very loyal, and if I have to lose money for a while I will. I know their bakery – they’re not as good as we are.” 

Kim Criswell, a Northbrae resident, said that she wrote the city planning staff an e-mail in support of the Hopkins Street Bakery when she saw a sign in its window asking customers to aid it in its battle against Bette’s. Criswell said that while she loved both the bakery and Bette’s Oceanview Diner and didn’t want to take sides in the matter, she was concerned about the threat to an established business. 

Now, she said, she was saddened to hear about La Farine’s designs on the sight. 

“It seems to me to make more sense to locate a new store in a neighborhood that needs it, rather than right next to an existing establishment,” she said. 

Jeff Dodge of La Farine could not be reached for comment. 

When Bette’s Oceanview Diner considered opening a “Bette’s To Go” branch in the sleepy neighborhood of Northbrae, many people who live in the community rose up against the plan.  

They wrote impassioned e-mails to the city’s planning staff, and attended the Sept. 13 meeting of the Zoning Adjustments Board to denounce the proposal. 

The majority of the opposition feared that because Bette’s would sell pastries in addition to meals, the popular Fourth Street diner would overwhelm the Hopkins Street Bakery, a local favorite.  

“It makes no sense to allow a proprietor (whose only motive is sheer profit) to potentially displace a much-loved established,” business wrote neighbor Katie Wenc. 

“It would be a terrible loss to the community if (Hopkins Street Bakery) were forced out of business,” said David Tepper. “Let (Bette’s) stay where they are – on Fourth Street – and leave this area free of them.” 

Bette Kroening, the owner of Bette’s Oceanview Diner, eventually withdrew her application to the Zoning Adjustments Board. In an interview Wednesday, she said that “it was a painful process,” and that she did not want to cause division in a neighborhood that she loved. 

Now, with the Bette’s project dead, it appears that a different establishment will go into the vacant storefront Kroening had wanted. 

Another bakery. 

On Tuesday, Jeff Dodge of La Farine, an upscale bakery on College Avenue in Oakland, filled out papers with the Planning Department on the site formerly occupied by Made to Order, a small takeout grocery. 

La Farine, which has been at its College Avenue site in Oakland for 25 years, will sell not only pastries, but tarts, cakes, cookies and specialty breads – an offering very similar to that of the Hopkins Street Bakery.  

City planning officials said that because La Farine’s scope of operations are similar to Made to Order’s, their application is “by right” – it does not require any additional approval by planning staff or the ZAB. However, the ZAB may choose to hold hearings on La Farine’s proposal to expand the site’s hours of operation.  

Made to Order’s permit allowed it to operate from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; La Farine would like to be open between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday. 

ZAB member Mike Issel said that the he was struck by the irony of the situation. Issel said that too often, neighbors and ZAB members try to engage in “zoning by intimidation.” 

“I hope that citizens in the future, will take a more practical approach to answering their fears,” he said. “We often see problems like those raised at the hearing on Bette’s, and they can often be worked out through dialogue between the parties.” 

Reza Jahansouz, owner of the Hopkins Street Bakery, had harsh words for his probable new neighbor. 

“I’m going to put them out of business,” he said. “Our customers are very loyal, and if I have to lose money for a while I will. I know their bakery – they’re not as good as we are.” 

Kim Criswell, a Northbrae resident, said that she wrote the city planning staff an e-mail in support of the Hopkins Street Bakery when she saw a sign in its window asking customers to aid it in its battle against Bette’s. Criswell said that while she loved both the bakery and Bette’s Oceanview Diner and didn’t want to take sides in the matter, she was concerned about the threat to an established business. 

Now, she said, she was saddened to hear about La Farine’s designs on the sight. 

“It seems to me to make more sense to locate a new store in a neighborhood that needs it, rather than right next to an existing establishment,” she said. 

Jeff Dodge of La Farine could not be reached for comment.

Editor: 

The claim that “Gridlock is here to stay” is erroneous. The ‘solutions’ to traffic congestion exist and lack the will to implement them within Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. The reason that the MTC’s Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) is now aimed more toward transit is that the RTP had formerly been badly out of balance favoring highways and BART, with little attention to many of the basic traffic problems. But in the last regular three-year Recertification Process, mandated by the Federal government to assure that the limited funds are being placed the right places, the MTC tried to hold the public comment session secret.  

The word got out and a mass of well-informed persons showed up and spoke their minds. The resulting instructions to the MTC were to provide better access to a more representative section of transportation users. That’s why this RTP gives transit more now than before, with even BART’s design problems getting the needed serious attention to prevent misapplication of funds. 

The ‘solution’ to congestion lies in a freeway bus rapid transit system, which does not need expensive new right of way (which BART needs) and is based on a well-functioning, integrated, area-wide bus network, which should have existed before BART was ever built, and on the most heavily-traveled bus routes. 

A system of comfortable, frequent buses that is within walking distance of nearly all residences and destinations, with one overall electronic ticket system, with convenient transfers that provide nearly direct service would wipe out traffic congestion. (A bus transfer facility should be built at the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza.) 

For instance, before BART, AC Transit was carrying 58 percent of the persons crossing the Bay Bridge during morning peak hours, with 300 buses per hour that used only 1/6th of a lane which normally carries 1,800 vehicles per hour.  

Those buses were 12 seconds apart, far safer than automobiles which travel about two seconds apart. 

Ridesharing has much more potential than is now being realized for persons who work regular hours and commute long distances.  

The way to determine the persons who are making the same long trips could be based on a survey and continually-updated reporting system maintained by the Postal System, which could keep track of the major trips taken by each household and could keep people in touch with each other from the changes of address forms routinely filed when people move. 

Car pools and van pools should be integrated with each other and then with the bus network, so that buses could eventually provide service to the persons making the most trips to any one destination. 

These are persons who are now sitting in congested traffic, wasting their depreciated time, breathing polluted air, who have the notion that more highways would solve their commute problems. 

About 20 percent of the commuters work regular hours, most of whom could be candidates for transit service.  

But somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of all the people, the elderly, the children, the handicapped, the poor, and non-drivers are transit dependent. 

The HOV diamond lanes should be primarily for buses, with a lane each for local and express buses.  

There should be feeder buses and bus pickup sites at each freeway interchange (as there are on 101 in Marin). Autos in the other lanes would have free flowing traffic. Trucks would have some restrictions, put into effect with their willing cooperation. 

All of the above ways to make the existing system work better, without major new investments are known as Transportation Systems Management (TSM). TSM includes flexible hours, staggered working hours, four-day weeks with staggered weekends, telecommuting and much more. 

One thing the highways do need is to require the contractors to guarantee their work so that the highways last much longer, as they do in France. 

Charles L. Smith 

Berkeley 

The Domestic Violence Oversight Committee credited a 17 percent decline in domestic violence with a partnership between the police department and a victims’ advocacy organization. 

Committee members, from the Family Violence Law Center, Berkeley Police Department and the city’s Health and Human Services Department, presented their report to the City Council Tuesday. 

According to the report, the number of incidences of domestic violence in Berkeley declined from 446 cases reported in 1997 to 374 cases reported in 2000. Committee members pointed to the joint efforts of the police department and the Family Violence Law Center. 

“The benefit to the victims is that they are presented with a variety of choices,” said Melinda Shrock, a victim advocate with the Family Violence Law Center. “They are given options of law enforcement, community services, children's’ counseling and in some cases emergency financial assistance.” 

The Berkeley Domestic Violence Prevention Program was formulated as a result of the city’s 1996 Report on Domestic Violence by a city task force consisting of Mayor Shirley Dean and councilmembers Dona Spring, Polly Armstrong and then-councilmember Mary Wainwright. The task force was assisted by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque and Police Chief Dash Butler. 

Shrock said a key feature of the program is intensive police training that gives officers a variety of tools to use when responding to domestic violence calls. She said one of the most effective tools is the Emergency Protective Order. 

The EPO is a five-day restraining order that officers can put into effect by contacting an on-call judge who is available 24 hours a day.  

When the program began in 1997, the Berkeley Police Department issued EPOs in 22 percent of domestic violence calls. During 2000, they issued EPOs in 69 percent of calls.  

“The EPO is one of the most important tools the police have,” Shrock said. “It’s easy to obtain and it gives everybody a chance to cool down.” 

Shrock said domestic violence victims will often refuse to press charges against their batterers even though they may still be in physical danger. Officers are trained to use their own judgment by examining domestic violence scenes for probable cause to make arrests or enact an EPO.  

She said officers will look for injuries, make note of the condition of furniture and check for a history of domestic violence. 

“One of the first things they will look at is the telephone,” Shrock said. “The telephone is often the point where the batterer loses control because the victim is reaching out for help,” she said. “If the phone cord is pulled out of the wall or is damaged in some way it’s a serious indication of trouble.” 

In addition to taking action at the scene of a crime, officers also refer the victim to a domestic violence prevention team that consists of a police officer and a victim advocate who can offer follow-up assistance. Follow-up assistance can include a variety of counseling programs, help with petitions for long-term restraining orders or safe housing. 

“Berkeley has really been a leader in the Bay Area with this program,” Dean said. “The 1996 study we put together led to a federal grant and now the program has shown some results.” 

Dean added that the program’s success is in large part due to Chief Butler’s responsiveness to the issue. 

And Butler complimented Berkeley police officers for their execution of the program, noting that follow-up assistance is an important new feature to police protocol.  

“Treating a domestic violence call as a beginning rather than an end is critical to helping victims take the first step out of a bad situation.” he said. “Anything you can do to reduce domestic violence means that everybody in the community is better served.”

SACRAMENTO — State officials summoned two commissions Wednesday to review California’s vulnerability to terrorist attacks. 

Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg promised “a top to bottom review” of state laws and security measures by his new Task Force on the Impact of Terrorism on California, which had its first meeting Wednesday. 

And Gov. Gray Davis issued an executive order to his existing State Strategic Committee on Terrorism, asking the committee to make recommendations to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks. 

“Our number one priority, bar none, is to keep Californians safe from further terrorist activities,” Davis said. 

He ordered the committee to examine potential threats involving the transportation and storage of hazardous materials, the agriculture industry, the state’s transportation systems, its medical facilities and its computer networks. 

Davis also ordered the creation of a subcommittee on the Protection of Public Health to look at the public health system’s preparedness for biological and chemical threats. 

The subcommittee will include representatives from the University of California, medical and health care associations, public health organizations, law enforcement, and state agencies and departments. 

Davis also directed the state agencies to provide education materials on the state’s preparedness to the public. 

Both the legislative and executive committees are to examine the potential for a terror attack in California, and the state’s readiness to prevent it and respond should one occur. 

Hertzberg said the goal of his talk force is “to make sure California is as safe as it is possible to be in a free and open society.” 

The bipartisan committee almost immediately went into a secret session to hear from the heads of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol, California National Guard, California Department of Justice, and FBI, as well as the Sacramento police chief and county sheriff. 

Twenty assemblymembers from 10 committees were required to sign nondisclosure statements before the closed-door briefing. 

On Monday, the task force meets in Los Angeles for a public session on the impact of the terrorist assaults on California’s economy. The daylong session is scheduled to feature Los Angeles’ police chief and sheriff, as well as panels of economists. 

Meanwhile, two Assembly members were in Washington, D.C., Wednesday and Thursday to coordinate California’s efforts with congressional and Bush administration proposals to beef up security. 

That includes reviewing possible protections that can be installed at the state Capitol, where temporary security precautions have been in place since the Sept. 11 East Coast attacks. 

Californians can make suggestions to the Assembly task force by calling: 1-800-977-SAFE. 

On the Net: 

Read about the Assembly task force at www.californiasafe.ca.gov.

SACRAMENTO —Downtown areas will be preferred sites for state office buildings across California under an executive “smart growth” order signed Wednesday by Gov. Gray Davis. 

The action inserts one of the state’s biggest real estate players into local campaigns to revive and preserve the state’s urban cores. 

The governor said Wednesday that consolidating far-flung leases into downtown office locations cut costs, make it easier for people to find state offices and reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. 

The act is modeled on a similar order used by the federal government’s General Services Administration. Cities frequently cite the order to keep government buildings downtown or keep them from leaving. 

“It formalizes something we started doing some time ago,” said state Department of General Services spokesman Rob Deignan. 

Davis signed the order after vetoing for the second straight year a similar, but less flexible bill passed by the Legislature.  

Davis called its goals laudable, but said rigid standards could have unintended consequences, invite lawsuits and jeopardize real estate negotiations. 

Andrea Jackson, aide to the bill’s author, Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s done via the Legislature or executive order. Whatever leads to better use of state buildings in urban cores, that’s what we’re after.” 

The State of California owns 40 offices statewide containing about 12 million square feet of space, Deignan said. The state also has 2,100 leases for 16 million square feet. 

Davis’ order is not mandatory, but aims to ensure that state architecture and siting decisions are environment-friendly, convenient to transit and affordable housing. Plans also are expected to explore a mix of uses in the same building and be consistent with local government initiatives to promote smart growth. 

WASHINGTON — California Rep. Nancy Pelosi won the race Wednesday for the No. 2 House Democratic leader and will become the top-ranking woman ever in Congress. Her election sparked debate over whether she will help or hinder her party. 

Pelosi, a liberal eight-term veteran from San Francisco, outpolled rival Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland by 118-95 in a closed-door, secret ballot vote. She will take the post of Democratic whip on Jan. 15 when Rep. David Bonior steps down from that job and concentrates on running for governor of Michigan. 

Both candidates claimed to be best positioned to lead their party back to the House majority it last held in 1994. Pelosi, 61, said she sought no votes on the basis of her gender, but clearly many of her colleagues felt it was time for a woman to enter the leadership circle. 

“This is difficult turf to win on for anyone, but for a woman breaking ground here it was a tough battle,” Pelosi said after the vote. “We made history. Now we have to make progress.” 

Pelosi’s triumph brought praise from groups that traditionally support Democrats. 

“We don’t get to break a glass ceiling in Congress very often,” said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. 

Supporters said Pelosi presents Democrats with an appealing package. 

Her base is in one of the country’s more affluent areas, and supporters praised Pelosi’s abilities as a fund raiser. Aides said she has raised $1.6 million for Democratic candidates this year. 

She also is being counted on to enhance the party’s ability to attract women. 

“Most campaigns run on the energy of women,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who helped run Pelosi’s leadership campaign. “This is a major, major step for the future of this party.” 

Other lawmakers from both parties wondered whether Pelosi could overcome the label of being a San Francisco liberal. 

“It makes me feel good as a liberal,” said Rep. James Moran, D-Va., who supported Hoyer. “But I’m not sure it does a lot for our future.” 

“She’s very appealing to the liberal base of her party,” said Ed Gillespie, a Republican consultant who once worked in the House. “But her liberal votes are not likely to be very appealing to the vast majority of the public.” 

Pelosi dismisses such arguments, saying of the San Francisco liberal tag: “When people pose that, they’re thinking in old ways.” 

In private, several Democrats said they worried that Pelosi would push House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., into a more confrontational stance with President Bush and congressional Republicans. The two parties have struggled lately to present a united front following last month’s terrorists attacks. 

These Democrats said Pelosi’s supporters cast her as the voice of Democrats upset with Gephardt for cooperating too much. They cite Gephardt’s agreement to exclude aid for workers from a bill that provided $15 billion for the troubled airline industry. 

Pelosi denied making Gephardt’s work with Republicans an issue and said he has “earned the respect and confidence of the country.” Gephardt took no public position in the contest. 

Even so, she told reporters that Democrats must not completely drop their differences with Bush and Republicans on the economy and other issues. 

“Where we can find common ground, we must find it and embrace it. But we must stand our ground” when we disagree, she said. 

Aides said Pelosi’s winning coalition consisted of overwhelming support from the House Democrats’ 32 Californians, 44 women, 38 blacks and 18 Hispanics, as well as the backing of other Western lawmakers and liberals. 

She also won enough votes from Democratic centrists and conservatives to outflank Hoyer, an 11-term lawmaker from just outside Washington with a slightly more moderate voting record than Pelosi. 

Because of the importance of Californians to Pelosi, her victory was seen as a bow to that state’s power in Congress and in national politics for Democrats. 

California’s 52 House seats – 53 in January 2003 to conform with the new census – make it by far the largest delegation in the House. Also, the state has become crucial to any Democratic presidential candidate’s chances of winning a general election. 

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices used the case of a kitchen worker, fired after a seizure on the job, to argue with each other Wednesday about the government’s role in combating discrimination when workers sign away their right to sue. 

Lawyers for Waffle House Inc. and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission didn’t do much of the talking during an hourlong oral argument.  

Instead, justices who are typically ideological opposites argued among themselves over the ramifications of letting the EEOC do for an employee what  

the employee could or would not do for himself. The case involves the intersection of arbitration agreements, an increasingly common condition of employment, and the traditional role of the EEOC in rooting out workplace discrimination. 

The agency takes a small number of cases to federal court, where it tries to make an example of discriminators by winning money or other damages.  

The government maintains it has a duty to do that even if an alleged victim is among the 10 percent of American workers covered by binding arbitration agreements. 

Waffle House, backed by business groups, counters that a binding arbitration agreement should be just that. 

Eric Scott Baker agreed to arbitration when he applied for a job in Columbia, S.C., but he went to the EEOC when he was fired in 1994.  

The agency sued in federal court for an alleged violation of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act. 

Ignoring the particulars of Baker’s case, Justice Antonin Scalia prodded the government lawyer to explain what would happen if an employee already had gone through arbitration and settled a discrimination complaint. 

Would the EEOC still have power to come in and essentially force a do-over in federal court?  

Yes, Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement managed to reply after  

several interruptions, but that is not the situation here. 

“Wow,” Scalia said under his breath. 

Scalia was in the conservative five-member majority when the court ruled in March that employers can force workers to take job-related disputes to arbitration rather than to court. 

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority decision in that earlier case, continued posing what-ifs to Clement.  

The government lawyer repeatedly tried to return to Baker’s situation, but an unusually curt Kennedy cut him off. 

“We’re asking what the logical consequence of your proposition is,” Kennedy said. “That’s why we’re asking about a harder case.” 

In March, the court found no broad exception to a federal law governing arbitration agreements. The court could use the Baker case to go a step further by ruling that the same Federal Arbitration Act precludes this kind of suit by the EEOC. 

Critics of arbitration clauses say workers often don’t read the legal fine print and don’t realize what rights they are signing away. 

Business groups generally champion arbitration as a cheaper, fairer alternative to the courtroom. Both sides make arguments to an outside arbitrator, whose decision is supposed to be final. 

When it was Waffle House lawyer David Gordon’s turn at the podium, a relative liberal on the court had hypothetical questions of his own. 

What if a wronged employee was too lazy, or cowed, or indifferent, to press a discrimination claim, Justice Stephen Breyer asked. Wouldn’t the EEOC be free to sue anyway, if winning the case would serve the public interest? And what would it matter, then, if the uncooperative employee had earlier agreed to arbitration? 

Scalia swooped in to answer that it did matter. 

Justice Clarence Thomas was head of the EEOC during the Reagan administration and thus has the court’s most direct experience with this kind of case. He followed his custom of saying nothing during the argument session. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Supreme Court site: http://www.supremecourtus.gov 

For the appeals court ruling in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Waffle House: http://www.uscourts.gov/links.html and click on 4th Circuit. 

SKOPJE, Macedonia — A Western envoy in Macedonia raised doubts Wednesday about a government-declared amnesty for ethnic Albanian rebels, saying it was not in line with a Western-brokered peace accord. 

Macedonia’s president, Boris Trajkovski, and his cabinet on Tuesday pardoned all ethnic Albanian rebels who battled government troops earlier this year but later surrendered their weapons to NATO. 

But Trajkovski said the amnesty did not apply to those who might have committed war crimes during the six months of clashes. 

The Western envoy, speaking strictly on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the declaration’s wording showed “considerable difference” from that agreed on under the Western-brokered deal. 

“An acceptable amnesty is critical to the peace process,” the envoy said. “And the one we saw yesterday is subject to broad legal interpretation.” 

Trajkovski stressed that the amnesty will also not apply to those who committed criminal acts during fighting in five specific villages. 

This phrase – “criminal acts” in five villages – is particularly misleading, because it could be broadly interpreted, the envoy said. 

The comments came after other Western diplomats here initially welcomed the declaration as part of the fragile peace process meant to upgrade minority rights of the ethnic Albanians who make up a third of Macedonia’s population of 2 million. 

The amnesty – endorsed by most members of Macedonia’s multiethnic government – was the first sign of progress in weeks toward implementing the peace deal to end six months of fighting. 

Ethnic Albanian officials have also objected to the declaration, demanding stronger, legislative guarantees that the recently disarmed militants would not be prosecuted. 

Justice Minister Idzet Memeti, an ethnic Albanian, said that only a special law passed in parliament could guarantee the former rebels freedom from prosecution. 

In persisting tensions, an explosion early Wednesday damaged a Macedonian-owned cafe in Prilep, 50 miles southwest of capital Skopje, injuring no one. 

The new, German-led NATO force numbering 1,000 troops in Macedonia saw action Wednesday when its de-mining team destroyed an arms cache in the village of Otlja, 10 miles northeast of Skopje. 

About 2 1/2 tons of ammunition, explosives and anti-tank mines were destroyed, said Col. Peer Schwan, chief of the mission code-named Amber Fox. 

The Macedonian parliament has still not passed 15 crucial constitutional amendments to upgrade ethnic Albanian rights – a key part of the accord. Ethnic Albanian deputies accuse Macedonian lawmakers of attempting to undermine the deal’s intention to put ethnic groups on an equal footing.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Americans William S. Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless won the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Ryoji Noyori of Japan on Wednesday for molecular research used in making medicines. 

Knowles, 84, of St. Louis, Mo. and Noyori, 63, of Nagoya University in Japan shared half of the $943,000 award. Sharpless, 60, of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., won the other half. 

Their research deals with the fact that many molecules appear in two forms that are mirror images of each other, just like the left and right hands. 

Cells generally respond to only one of these forms, while the other form might be harmful. Drugs often use such mirror-image molecules and the difference between the two forms can be a matter of life and death. 

The research has led to ways of making only the proper form of these mirror-image molecules.  

The technology has led to methods of creating medicines like antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs and heart medications, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its citation. 

The economics prize was to be announced later Wednesday. 

The science prizes have been awarded on the same day for decades, but the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to break with tradition after deciding the chemistry prize was often forgotten in the excitement of the earlier physics announcement. 

The coveted prizes were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite and were first awarded in 1901. 

Nobel gave little guidance other than to say the chemistry prize should go to those who “shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind” and “shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement.” 

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was established separately in 1968 by the Swedish central bank, but it is grouped with the other awards. 

The physics award went Tuesday to Americans Eric A. Cornell, 39, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado; Carl E. Wieman, 50, of the University of Colorado; and German scientist Wolfgang Ketterle, 43, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

They were cited for creating a new state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate that could lead to ways to make ever tinier electronic circuits and more precise measurements. 

Scientists say the condensates and atom lasers could lead to smaller and faster electronic circuits laid down by tiny beams of atoms. 

The Nobels, which celebrate their centennial this year, started Monday with the naming of physiology or medicine prize winners American researcher Leland H. Hartwell and Britons Tim Hunt and Paul Nurse for work on cell development that could lead to new cancer treatments. 

The literature prize will be announced on Thursday and the peace prize on Friday in Oslo, Norway. 

The prizes are always presented to the winners on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. 

To mark the 100th anniversary of the prizes, all living laureates have been invited to the ceremonies this year, with some 150 expected in Stockholm and 30 in Oslo. 

Last year’s chemistry prize went to Alan J. Heeger and Alan G. MacDiarmid of the United States and Hideki Shirakawa of Japan for the discovery that plastic conducts electricity and for the development of conductive polymers. 

The economics prize was won by Americans James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden for their work in developing theories to help analyze labor data and how people make work and travel decisions. 

——— 

On the Net: 

Nobel site, http://www.nobel.se 

How timely the award of the Nobel prize in economics for research on how information and the lack of it can affect markets. In stocks, for example, the lack is almost unprecedented. 

“We have focused our eyes and ears on the opinions offered by some of the sharpest financial and economic minds in the world,” says Gerald Perritt, himself one of the sharper analytical minds in the business. 

“However,” he concludes, “we know that none of these people actually know what the future will behold.” The bare truth, he says, “is that there is no precedent for what happened Tuesday, September 11, 2001.” 

Ultimately, says Jim Griffin, economist with Aeltus Investment Management, “it gets back to faith after all, even for hardheaded analysts.” Sept. 11, he adds, “was and is a challenge to that faith.” 

That faith is based in the historical record showing the U.S. stock market always rises from the worst of times, often reaching a joyous peak that elicits comments about it being the best of times. 

The “best of times” for most of today’s investors are of recent, painful memory, having occurred just a couple or so years ago, and faith is being tested as it never has since World War II. 

But for those of great faith, rays of hope can be spotted in a flood of investment commentary, most of which typically and adroitly avoids taking an unequivocal stand, one from which there is no retreat. 

Robert Morrow, a Bradenton, Fla. private forecaster who works mainly by institutional clients, and whose views have sometimes been uncannily correct, states boldly that the Standard & Poor’s 500 index will double by midyear 2002. Such a rare, clear stand can break a forecaster. 

While urging caution, and as usual limiting himself to facts, Perritt, editor and publisher of “Gerald Perritt’s Mutual Fund Letter,” does take special note that investors have about $2 trillion “sitting” in cash. 

“During times of financial turmoil,” he says, “it pays to sit on your hands.” But as the economy begins to improve, which many economists expect will be next year, he expects much of that money will return to stocks. 

Meanwhile, writing in “The Babson Staff Letter,” analyst Lance James refers to the recent return to leadership of small-cap stocks as “heartening and justified” in spite of the so many doubts overhanging the market. 

The resurrection of smaller stocks has tended to be overlooked amid the collapse of so many larger issues, but it is measurably real and likely to continue. That’s the history of so-called small-caps: When they start moving up, they continue rising for a run of several years. 

Small-caps did well from 1979 through 1983, and for more than three years beginning in 1991. But by the turn of the century, James states, the small-caps suffered from an unprecedented bias for larger stocks. 

Then, as the overall market began its plunge, the smaller companies began their ascension, an event unsighted by many smaller investors still licking their wounds and, importantly, lacking investment information. 

These companies, explains James, are “less adept at providing information to investors.” You may have to do your own research. But it is this very lack of information that makes that homework pay off – and big. 

Larger investors, and the institutions that provide them with information, generally concentrate their efforts on large-capitalization companies on which there is already a glut of information. 

Moreover, institutional investors deal in investment sums too large to be accommodated by the smaller companies. 

Still, small companies often grow, and information about them spreads, and then the big investors move in. 

In short, the lack of information, especially today, can give small investors in small-cap stocks an advantage over the big guys. 

John Cunniff is a business analyst for The Associated Press

SAN JOSE — Yahoo! Inc. met Wall Street expectations for its third-quarter earnings Wednesday and only slightly reduced its targets for the current quarter, leading investors to send its shares up more than 3 percent in after-hours trading. 

However, Yahoo’s chairman and chief executive, Terry Semel, said the company is examining its 44 business units for a realignment that might lead to further job cuts. In April, Yahoo imposed the first layoffs in its six-year history, cutting 420 jobs – 12 percent of its work force. 

The earnings report was being studied closely because it was one of the first from a major Internet company since last month’s terrorist attacks. Online advertising already has been slumping for nearly a year and is expected to get even worse along with the overall economy. 

In the three-month period ending Sept. 30, Yahoo had its fourth straight quarterly net loss: $24.1 million, or 4 cents a share, on revenue of $166.1 million. In the same period last year, Yahoo showed a net profit of $47.7 million, or 8 cents per share, on revenue of $295.5 million. 

Excluding investment losses and other one-time events, Yahoo said it would have earned $8.4 million, or 1 cent per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting to see 1 cent per share and $170 million in revenue. 

Shares of Yahoo, which gained 77 cents, or 8 percent, to $10.93 in regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, rose another 37 cents to $11.30 in extended trading following the release of the report. 

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., said it expects to see between $160 million and $180 million in revenue in the current quarter and break even or earn up to 1 cent per share, excluding charges.  

Analysts were expecting $190.8 million in revenue and earnings of 1 cent per share. 

The reduction in the revenue estimate includes between $5 million and $15 million in sales expected to be postponed or lost because of last month’s attacks, said Susan Decker, the chief financial officer. 

“This economic climate is unprecedented,” Semel said on a conference call with financial analysts. “If we found it hard to read the economic picture even before this, now the picture is even more obscured.” 

Executives said they had filled key management holes, and touted the company’s healthy balance sheet, with $1.7 billion in cash. Yahoo said it now has 210 million registered users, 80 million of whom actually logged on to the site in September. 

With consumers so far cool to Yahoo’s new subscription-based offerings, Semel said Yahoo would soon roll out packages with several services bundled together, for better value. Yahoo hopes premium services can help continue to reduce the company’s reliance on advertising, which makes up about 80 percent of revenue. 

Semel said details of the company’s restructuring, and resulting job cuts, would be announced at the company’s meeting with analysts Nov. 15. 

“I think we’ll be tighter, leaner, easier to run,” he said in an interview. “We’ll all see where we’re going much more readily.” 

Like most businesses, Internet companies had a rough time after the Sept. 11 attacks. Yahoo was one of several popular sites that pulled some advertising. 

Nielsen/NetRatings said U.S. Internet usage dropped in September. Fewer people went online, and those who did spent an average of 17 hours surfing the Web, down from more than 18 hours in August. 

“It’s a tough backdrop for the best of companies,” said American Express analyst John Faig, who believes Yahoo stock remains too expensive despite its long slide. “There clearly have been better times in history to reboot your business.” 

In the first nine months of 2001, Yahoo lost $84.1 million, or 15 cents per share, on revenue of $528.5 million. In the first three quarters of last year, Yahoo earned $168.6 million, or 27 cents per share, on revenue of $799.3 million. 

——— 

On the Net: 

http://www.yahoo.com 

Officials from Berkeley High and De Anza High will meet today to sort out the ramifications of Friday’s cancelled football game between the two schools. 

Friday’s game was cancelled when no officials showed up for the 7 p.m. varsity kickoff. According to a source close to the situation, Alameda Contra Costa Athletic League officials botched the scheduling of officials. De Anza then compounded the problem by not checking with the league before the game, as is customary. 

One possible outcome is for the game to be made up on Nov. 16. But in order for that to happen, the North Coast Section first round of playoffs, scheduled for that weekend, must be postponed. The Fremont Athletic League has already requested that the playoffs be moved back due to the cancellation of games after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The FAL cancelled all games that weekend, although most other games in Northern California went ahead as planned. Berkeley High, for instance, played James Logan High on Sept. 14. 

“(The request) does create some challenges trying to re-schedule the whole playoffs,” NCS commissioner Tom Ehrhorn said. “All of that stuff the board has to consider. Our job is to make it work no matter what.” 

Moving the playoffs back would also mean moving the date of the championship games from Nov. 30 or Dec. 1 to Dec. 7 or 8. That would take football, a fall sport, even further into the winter sports schedule, a serious inconvenience for student-athletes who play both football and a winter sport. 

Berkeley High does have its league bye week coming up on Oct. 19, but head coach Matt Bissell scheduled a non-league matchup with Emery for that day before the season started. In addition, De Anza already has a league game scheduled for that day. Berkeley’s last regular season game is against Pinole Valley on Nov. 8, leaving no open date before the NCS playoffs are scheduled to begin. 

“I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Bissell said Wednesday. “No determination has been made what will happen if the game isn’t made up, and unless the NCS pushes the playoffs back, I don’t see how that will happen.” 

If the game isn’t made up, it is possible the game will be ruled a forfeit in Berkeley’s favor, since De Anza was the home team and didn’t check with the league about officials. But that would be punishing De Anza for what is essentially a league office mistake.

Cal is 0-4 and are ranked 113th out of 116 Division IA teams for scoring defense. Oregon is 5-0 and are ninth in scoring offense. But if you listen to the teams’ head coaches, they make it sound as if the Ducks have been lucky, and the Bears simply the victims of plenty of bad breaks. 

“Watching Cal, they’re the best 0-4 team I’ve seen,” Oregon’s Mike Bellotti said this week. “Cal is a quality team that hasn’t gotten any breaks yet. If they do, watch out.” 

Cal head man Tom Holmoe looks at his team’s -13 turnover ratio, dead last in the Pac-10, compared to Oregon’s +11, best in the conference, and he sees opportunities slipping through his players’ fingers. 

“We haven’t gotten the breaks,” Holmoe said. “The ball’s been on the ground, but we haven’t recovered it.” 

Holmoe isn’t blind to the fact that his team has been plain sloppy with the ball, however. Eleven fumbles in four games isn’t just unlucky, it’s a lack of concentration and commitment to holding on to the ball. When a team like the Ducks has coughed it up just twice in five games, it’s obvious that something has to change. 

“I don’t know if there’s a curse or a snakebite or what. Every game, we just don’t get the breaks,” Cal wide receiver Charon Arnold said. “But you don’t want to think about not fumbling, because you don’t want to get thoughts like that in your head.” 

The Bears need to get something in their heads, and it would help if it involved taking the ball away from the opposition. They have forced just one turnover this season, an interception by cornerback LeShaun Ward against Washington State. 

Perhaps Holmoe’s players can pick up some tips while watching game films of Oregon’s 63-28 pounding of Arizona last week. The Ducks proved to be masterful at converting turnovers into easy points, turning all five Arizona mistakes into touchdowns. 

While the Cal offense has improved under new coordinator Al Borges, averaging 382 yards per game (up from 317 ypg last season), it hasn’t turned into points or wins yet. That could be because the Bears have started just two drives on their opponent’s half of the field, while allowing opponents to start on the easy side of midfield 13 times. 

“When you can get a short field, that usually translates into points,” Holmoe said. “We just haven’t been able to get turnovers.”

SAN FRANCISCO – Barry Bonds hit it and Alex Popov may have caught it, but Patrick Hayashi emerged from a scrum of Giants fans to become the happy owner of the ball the San Francisco slugger smacked Sunday for his 73rd homer.  

Hayashi was grinning at the time, but he’s tight-lipped now about what he’ll do with the ball, valued at perhaps $1 million.  

“I am just savoring the moment,” Hayashi, 36, said in an e-mail that has served as his only public comment.  

Instead, Popov’s doing the talking. Television footage shows that Popov, a health-food restaurateur from Berkeley, gloved the ball but was mobbed by a crush of clawing fans. Someone ripped the ball from his mitt and it ended up in Hayashi’s hands.  

Now the catcher on the fly is brandishing a videotape and a lawyer, saying that if Hayashi doesn’t give back the ball he will seek criminal charges.  

Giants officials aren’t swayed.  

“Once Major League Baseball identifies the individual with possession of the ball, that’s the end of that,” said Jorge Costa, Giants senior vice president of ballpark operations.

Berkeley police are reporting several cases where phony $100 bills were passed. 

On Monday, a young man – “probably a juvenile” – went into Mail Boxes, etc. at 2342 Shattuck Ave., and asked the clerk to change a $100 bill, said Capt. Bobby Miller of the Berkeley police. When the clerk turned him down, he went outside and approached a man, about to enter the business, asking him for change. The man, a UC Berkeley professor, obliged. But when he went into the store to spend his new bill, the clerk, who had seen the transaction outside, notified police who confirmed that the bill was phony. The professor was not charged. 

Police think that on Monday someone may have tried to pay for a $30 pasta at Pasta Shop Fine Foods, 1786 Fourth St., with a counterfeit $100. The suspect first tried to pay for the pasta with an old-looking $100 bill, which the clerk said looked phony and would not accept. Then the suspect pulled out a second $100 bill which, again, appeared counterfeit to the clerk. The customer finally pulled out a $100 bill, which was verified as real, paid for the pasta and left. 

Police are also looking into another incident on Monday at Longs Drugs, at 1451 Shattuck Ave., where someone may have attempted to pay for goods with a phony $100. And they are investigating an incident on Sunday at Carniera Don Jose, 2056 San Pablo Ave., where police said a suspect paid for three packs of tortillas with a counterfeit $100 bill. 

••• 

On Oct. 5, a man was shot twice, once in the left leg and once in the right calf, at San Pablo Avenue and Channing Way. “The victim said he doesn’t know who shot him,” and could not give police a description, Miller said. 

Three months after Proposition 36 took effect, first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders who might have once spent time behind bars now sit in treatment centers. And in Alameda County, there is room for everyone – in outpatient treatment, at least. 

“It’s going pretty smoothly given it’s a start up program,” said Pat Furlong of the Alameda County Department of Behavioral Care, which oversees the county’s implementation of Proposition 36. “So far, we haven’t had too many problems.” 

Proposition 36, the statewide initiative approved by 60 percent of California voters last November, allows eligible offenders convicted of illegal drug use or possession to receive probation and treatment instead of incarceration. Opponents of the measure said that the program would tax the state’s already crowded substance abuse centers. According to the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, there were 73,600 publicly-funded substance abuse treatment slots available in the state in April 2001, with about 5,000 people on county waiting lists. 

Despite the negative projections, Alameda County has so far been able to accommodate the increased demand for treatment, though the long-term viability of the program is unclear.  

Furlong said she worries about residential treatment capacity and warns that there might not be enough funding to sustain the program. The county was awarded $5.4 million in state funding this year to carry out the measure.  

From July 1 through Sept. 7, Furlong said the county received 248 Prop. 36 clients. Clients are first reviewed by private assessment teams and then placed in appropriate treatment, which can range from eight-week education programs to long-term residential stays. Providers report clients’ progress to the county on a monthly basis. In addition, the county evaluates clients every 90 days.  

Of the first 248 offenders referred for treatment by the courts, Furlong said 80 percent were placed in outpatient treatment, 10 percent in residential treatment, 7 percent in early intervention programs, 1 percent in methadone treatment, 1 percent in detoxification and 1 percent in day treatment. Furlong expects Prop. 36 to add a total of 2,500 to 3,000 substance abuse clients a year to the more than 8,000 already in the Alameda County system.  

“We have no problems with outpatient, but we’re at capacity right now for residential treatment,” said Furlong. “Those people in the beds now will be there for weeks. But we’ll need new beds for new people soon. The turnover is not quick enough.” 

Mark McConville, executive director of the nonprofit organization, Second Chance, Inc., a Proposition 36-contracted outpatient treatment center with sites in Fremont, Newark and Union City, echoed the need for more residential beds. 

“We currently have two people from our outpatient program who we’d like to get into a residential program,” said McConville. “But there aren’t available beds among the Proposition 36-eligible residential programs in Alameda County.”  

Residential treatment can take anywhere from a few weeks to 18 months. At present, Alameda County has contracts with six residential treatment sites and is negotiating with five additional agencies to meet increased demand, said Furlong.  

Statewide, the effect appears to be similar. Dan Carson of the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, which is tracking implementation, said that anecdotal information from counties indicates, “the numbers coming into the treatment system as a result of Prop 36 are a bit light, but that the treatment needs of the offenders are more severe than predicted.”  

Carson, however, cautioned that this early data could turn out to be very misleading and that official numbers have yet to be compiled and published. 

But so far, the anecdotal information seems on target for Alameda County.  

Whereas residential programs, the longest form of treatment, are at capacity, outpatient and detoxification centers have room for more. McConville said his outpatient agency has only received 90 Proposition 36 referrals, of which about half are currently enrolled in the program. He has 800 clients total.  

Leo Van Der Most, manager at New Leaf Treatment Center in Hayward, a Proposition 36-contracted agency, said his six-bed detoxification program is only 70 percent full on average.  

Both McConville and Van Der Most said that only 10 percent of their clientele are sober one year later and that treatment is an ongoing process. “About 80 percent of the drug offenders really want to be here,” said Van Der Most. “They say ‘I’m glad I got caught because I couldn’t stop myself.’ The others don’t cooperate and don’t want to be here. But the seed is planted.” 

McConville had a similar take. “We’ve been around for 30 years and we have a lot of people who came through as runaways years ago who are only now sober,” he said. “So we don’t get too excited if they don’t get sober the first time around.”  

In order to receive Proposition 36-referred clients, McConville said that an agency has to be state-certified and contracted with the county. Many agencies are not currently contracted with Alameda County and so are ineligible for Proposition 36. But Furlong is working to get more agencies on board.  

New Bridge Foundation in Berkeley, one of the largest drug treatment facilities on the East Bay, is negotiating a contract, according to its director Peter Budwalen. In addition, Furlong said he is working to get a contract with a 25-bed residential treatment center in Oakland.  

Besides meeting future capacity, however, Furlong said his biggest worry is funding. The state allocated $120 million for Proposition 36 to be distributed between the counties. But Furlong thinks that the counties need more.  

“The counties already indicated to the state that this isn’t going to be enough. Before Proposition 36, (Alameda County) had $19 million for the 8,000-9,000 clients in our system. But now we’re expecting 2,500-3,000 new people each year because of Proposition 36 and we only have $5.4 million to cover the difference.” 

Furlong said since the program is not yet at full capacity, funding is probably sufficient for this year. But he is concerned that funding will be a challenge down the line, especially if numbers increase. At present, the county is wholly dependent on state funds.

As part of a week-long series of events dedicated to realizing integration and diversity on UC campuses, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, BAMN, held a forum Thursday night on the fight to increase women and minority faculty at UC Berkeley.  

Students and professors joined a panel to discuss the current composition of women and minority faculty on the campus, their declining numbers, obstacles for diversity, and the significance of these groups’ presence.  

Angelica Stacy, professor of chemistry at Berkeley and director of the UC Berkeley Faculty Equity Office, discussed the disproportionately low numbers of women and minority faculty on campus.  

Only the second woman hired in the chemistry department, Stacy is the first woman to receive tenure in that department.  

But, she said, between 1996 and 1999, the rate of hiring women faculty decreased 20 percent, from 35 to 28 percent. Today, only 38 percent of associate professors are women at Berkeley; 21 percent have tenure.  

Susan Ervin-Tripp, retired professor of psychology and a member of the Association of University Women, cites three reasons for the small number of women and minority faculty at Berkeley. First, under the initiative that ended affirmative action, also known as Proposition 209, interest in outreach diminished, she says.  

Because the language of the initiative was so vague many people thought outreach was not permitted. Secondly, targeted opportunity positions, a practice which resulted in the hiring of more women and minorities, is no longer allowed. Lastly, there is no real pressure on administrators to make sure schools hire fairly or support promotion.  

“Deans are not responsible to hire diversity,” she said. “No one checks their record of hiring at their previous jobs.” 

Professor Charles Henry, chair of the African-American Studies department, discussed obstacles in the way of creating a diverse environment on Berkeley’s campus.  

Berkeley is a public university that considers itself elite, he says. As a public university, Berkeley is accountable to the state and the citizens of the state and it should reflect them, he said.  

“But, there is another twist when you also want to be an elite university. The elite status is not measured by how well you meet your public mandate it’s measured by a very narrow set of criteria. That criteria essentially involves research and production,” said Henry.  

Women and minorities are traditionally not a part of the fields whose research is typically rewarded, recognized and draw the school resources. 

According to Henry, “decentralized faculty hiring” is another obstacle. Decisions made within departments before pools are considered, limit women and minorities from being considered for new positions.  

Additionally, Henry says search committees that recommend candidates to departments often do not have women or minorities on them because they already are lacking on campus.  

“You’ve got a repetitive process – the search committee is replicating themselves,” said Henry.  

Henry also cites conflicting messages at the federal and state level as an obstacle.  

“When they do encourage affirmative action the Supreme Court and federal courts often are saying something else,” said Henry. “At the state level, we’re also getting conflicting messages. The state legislature is saying to us: Why don’t you have more minorities and women? 

“The institutes following (Proposition) 209 are saying you can’t do affirmative action,” said Henry.  

Beyond the obstacles impeding the path of diversity on Berkeley’s campus, Henry says he is convinced that diversity is crucial in terms of research.  

“Women and minorities study different basic research issues than do white men,” he said. “The most significant thing to diversifying the faculty would be a diverse student body. That’s saying OK, we want our interests reflected up here and in your research and in your teaching. I think there is a crucial link between the admissions process and faculty hiring,” said Henry.  

Perhaps the most important issue surrounding the presence of women and minority faculty at Berkeley, or lack thereof, is its impact on female and minority students. Tina Prevatte, a Cal Engineering student, says women and minority faculty serve as role models to the female students of color on campus. In a field dominated by males, Prevatte has considered leaving, but she says her female teachers give her hope and a reason to put up with a lot of frustration.  

Prevatte said of one of the 19 female professors (out of 220 in the Engineering department): “I look at her and say ‘she did it, there’s room for me here.’”

Local organizations losing funds to national groups 

Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, Peggy Bush worried about raising enough funds for the Center for AIDS Services, the only day center for people with AIDS in Alameda County. Now, her concerns have deepened.  

“I know that people have given to New York and Washington and to the firefighters and police,” said Bush, who serves as the nonprofit’s executive director. “And I think it’s great because they need the help. But for us, it’s aggravated an already dwindling of resources. Somehow, we have to get people interested in us as well.” 

Days after the Twin Towers fell and the nation awoke to the horrors of terrorism, people from all over the United States rallied together to lend whatever support they could to those affected by the tragedy. They lined up at blood banks, dug out their checkbooks and raised nearly $1 billion for relief efforts and victims’ families.  

One month later, the dust has settled and Bay Area nonprofits are wondering if the spirit of giving will last. Some, like Bush, believe the outpouring to victims’ families coupled with the floundering economy could spell trouble for small nonprofits.  

Bush said her agency has already experienced a drop in donations. And she said that a prolonged war in Afghanistan might exacerbate the problem.  

“There’s not the confidence out there. People are afraid and holding on to their money. They’re waiting. And we’re holding our breath,” she said. 

Every January, Bush holds an opera concert featuring New York singers to raise funds for the center. This year, the show will go on but Bush said she may have to rely on local singers.  

Tony Leong, Executive Director of the Berkeley-based Asians for Job Opportunities in the Bay Area, which provides employment, training and bilingual social services to 1,000 unemployed and underemployed individuals a year, is concerned about the attack’s impact on administrative funds. He suspects that the $200 to $300 a month his agency receives through United Way donor designations will be significantly less for September, though he has not yet received the figure. Such a drop, he said, would result in fewer Safeway coupons for clients and less money to cover everyday expenses like phones and stamps.  

Other local nonprofits, however, were unwilling to speculate about the impact of the attack.  

Boona cheema, executive director of Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, which provides housing, economic development and social services to 3,500 individuals annually, cautioned that it is difficult to tell what the response of donors at the local level will be.  

“It’s not as rosy as it was a year or two ago,” cheema said. “But I think enough time will have passed between September and December, when [donors] are doing their year-round giving, that I’m optimistic the effect won’t be as great as people think.” 

Rick Spittler, executive director of Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program, which serves 1,200 physically disabled individuals a year, said he won’t know the extent of the impact until fall appeal letters are sent out in November. He also suggested that the effect might not be negative.  

“Maybe it will wake people up to how important it is to take care of everything and everyone, especially those in the community who are less fortunate,” he said.  

Ian McCuaig of 3Fund LLC, a San Francisco-based philanthropy consulting firm, agreed that the outcome could be positive. Although he said corporate and foundation philanthropy will probably decline, government funding will likely increase.  

“Early philanthropic response to the tragedy of Sept. 11 has been encouraging,” he said. “I am convinced that Americans will respond in a manner described 250 years ago as the ‘associative impulse,’ the coming together in a common effort for a common good.”  

McCuaig said that the onus will be on individuals to “pump up their giving and dig deeper than ever before.” He also said that the more a nonprofit can “equate its mission with the recovery effort” the better, and he was confident that “well-managed” nonprofits would ride the wave of uncertainty with little trouble. 

However, Pete Mountanos of Charitableway.com, which helps corporations integrate charity in their business models, was not as optimistic.  

“National surveys have recorded a substantial shift in priorities amongst the public with things like education suddenly declining behind security,” he said. “Overall there are certainly many more reasons to be concerned on a local basis than optimistic.” Among the reasons Mountanos mentioned was rising unemployment rates, a declining stock market and a struggling economy.  

Last year, charitable contributions from individuals totaled $152 billion, up 4.9 percent from 1999, and comprised 75 percent of the $203 billion total giving in the United States, according to the Giving USA 2001 report. Approximately nine percent was given to human service organizations and six percent to public interest organizations, which included federal giving programs such as United Way, community action agencies and community economic development programs. 

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University recently examined giving levels in the years surrounding 13 major events of terrorism, war, and political or economic crises, including Pearl Harbor, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Gulf War and the 1993 bombings of the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City. They found several trends. 

Some of its findings include: 

• The total amount of giving in the United States has increased every year but one (1987) for the past 40 years, including through wars, recessions and other crises. However during recessions, growth in giving averages about 5 percent instead of the average annual rate of 7.6 percent . 

• In the two acts of terrorism examined, in the year in which the event occurred the rate of growth in giving increased over the prior year. 

• The rate of growth in giving slowed in the year after the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, and increased in the year after the Oklahoma City Bombing.  

Eugene R. Tempel, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy, said that the findings show that giving and the stock market are resilient. “While this (the Sept. 11 terrorist attack) is a unique situation, in the past Americans have shown a remarkable capacity to recover from adversity, both economically and spiritually, as measured by the stock market and giving,” he said. 

Regardless of the outlook, most nonprofits have decided not to leave giving levels to fate. Bush said that her agency is redoing its brochure and making it more alive and colorful, in the hope of attracting more donors.  

“You’ve got to do what you can do now,” she said. “You can’t just wait until it’s all dried up.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio - After dropping its first conference game in over two years and in danger of losing its third consecutive game for the first time since 1998, No. 20 California needed something big to stop the mini-tailspin and gain momentum for the stretch run of conference play.  

The Bears (7-4, 3-1) got that and much more as they defeated No. 10 Ohio State (10-3, 3-0), 5-4, in overtime Saturday afternoon at Woody Hayes Athletic Center North Field. It was Cal’s first victory over a Top 25 opponent since Sept. 25, 1999, when the Bears defeated No. 11 Michigan State, 2-1.  

What looked like a victory suddenly appeared to be a heart-breaking loss for the Bears as OSU scored to go up 4-3 with 2:41 remaining in the game.  

But with 34 seconds left in the contest, and the Buckeyes looking to burn off the rest of the clock, Harkins got a hold of the ball and put it home for the fourth tie of the game. The forward’s second goal of the game and eighth of the season pushed the game into overtime where Nora Feddersen scored on a penalty corner at 13:02 of OT to give the Bears the upset win over OSU.

Democrats will face challenges protecting their agenda in the political climate that has followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, political science professor Bruce Cain told about 50 people during a forum Thursday hosted by the Berkeley Democratic Club at Northbrae Community Church. 

The country’s response to terrorism will force close consideration of civil liberties and freedom of the press, Cain said. Surveys and research have shown that when the public is faced with national security issues, the concern for protecting civil liberties declines, he said. Democrats must also be aware of people redefining issues such as oil drilling and tax cuts in the context of terrorism, a phenomenon Cain calls “policy hitch-hiking.” 

“It will be hard for Democrats to stand up and say ‘this isn’t part of the war effort,’” Cain said. He noted that Democrats will have a more difficult time if they don’t receive help from the press, which Cain said he sensed was still in a “flag-waving, timid mode.” 

The media will walk a fine line in their coverage of the country’s response to terrorism, pitting the public’s right to know against the secret nature of some military actions, Cain said. He predicted the country will struggle with the tension between freedom and surveillance. 

Cain praised George W. Bush for getting international consensus on how to address and combat terrorism, and said it could help the United States become part of the global community and shake its reputation for being the world’s policeman.  

“The agenda plays to Bush’s strength, which is that his administration has more experience on the foreign policy side,” Cain said, citing the challenges Democrats may face during future elections.  

It is too early to say how Bush’s current popularity will translate in the next election cycle, but Cain said support for the president could unravel if the nation’s economy is in shambles in the next six months. However, other Republican candidates could receive a boost if support for Bush’s policies continue, he said. 

“Gov. Davis might have used the Bush connection to ram Richard Riordan,” Cain said, describing former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan as the likely Republican candidate in the 2002 California gubernatorial election. Continued support for Bush administration policies could make Riordan a formidable foe, he said. 

During a question and answer session, attendees expressed confusion, anger and skepticism over media and national responses to terrorism. Cain advised the group to be patient. 

“This is not a permanent condition,” he said. 

Shirley Issel, a psychotherapist and vice president of the school board, asked Cain about the media’s motive for detailing terrorist attacks. 

“What are they thinking?” she asked, calling some stories “recipes for terrorism.” 

Cain responded that his interactions had taught him that media outlets are run as businesses. The crisis following the Sept. 11 attacks have been a huge boon for the media, he said. 

“You get what they think you want,” Cain said. “(News organizations) think part of what interests you is what you fear.”

Riders at BART’s three Berkeley stations had mixed reactions Thursday to the system’s new efforts to strengthen security.  

One wanted bag checks, others feared for their civil liberties more than an attack against BART and still others said it was impossible to make BART terrorist-proof. 

“Bombs are tiny now,” said UC Berkeley senior Jaya Owens.  

“Someone could come in with a backpack or a purse, and if they’re willing to die they can blow up the train. The police can’t do anything.” 

Nevertheless, BART officials tried by locking bathrooms, removing trash cans from subway platforms and switching elevator call buttons to station-agent control. The effort began Tuesday after U.S. planes bombed Afghanistan. Soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, BART increased police patrols through overtime. 

“We’re only doing this in response to the national alert,” said BART Public Affairs Director Mike Healy. “BART is not under any threat.” 

However, a patrol officer at the downtown Berkeley station said passengers call in every day with reports of suspicious bags and parcels, and that bomb threats have become “pretty routine” – as frequent as twice a day. 

BART police are concentrated at the West Oakland and Embarcadero stations to more thoroughly inspect entrances to the Transbay tube. The actual access doors to the tunnel are now staffed 24 hours a day, the officer said. 

Marc Janowitz, waiting in the downtown Berkeley station, sees more police as a potential threat to civil liberties. He expressed concern about BART police weapons being accidentally or inappropriately used in the event of “something going wrong,” and about “profiling of various kinds.” 

“I don’t have confidence that they are trained to adequately respond, or appropriately respond, or safely respond to an emergency that they might be called to,” Janowitz said. He added that he did not feel “that worried about being attacked in the current climate.” 

Michael Mitchell, waiting in the downtown Berkeley station, said he’d like to see more security. “There’s no one here to check if you even left a bag,” Mitchell said. “I don’t mind the inconvenience. Just make sure I’m riding safely.” 

But another man, traveling to Pleasanton with his infant daughter, said he was not at all nervous riding BART. He said he didn’t think the system would be a strategic target for terrorists.  

Other BART passengers said they don’t let themselves think about the possibility of being attacked. 

“I just won’t let myself become afraid,” said April Hamilton, who rides BART to her two part-time jobs every day and said she was more concerned about “regular, everyday street crime.”  

“Maybe it’s fatalism, but if a person is determined enough and they’re willing to take their own life, they can circumvent” any security measure, Hamilton said. 

“It can come from anything,” Owens said. “It can even come from someone getting a gun and shooting everyone around. So what is security now?”

LOS ANGELES — Airports around the country are halting or revamping billions of dollars worth of expansion plans because of fewer fliers and greater security concerns after the Sept. 11 hijacker attacks. 

From Boston to San Francisco, airports are delaying building runways and terminals or are reconsidering planned additions as passengers remain jittery about flying and airlines keep planes grounded. 

At Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, work has stopped on most of the airport’s $1.2 billion expansion, including preliminary work on a $650 million terminal to replace two existing ones. 

“The demand is just not there as it was before Sept. 11,” airport spokeswoman Suzanne Luber said. 

Since last month’s terrorist attacks, passenger volume is down 20 to 30 percent. Airlines have cut their capacity by 20 percent, laid off more than 90,000 employees and warned of multibillion-dollar losses well into 2002. Congress last month approved a $15 billion relief package, including $5 billion in cash and $10 billion in loan guarantees for the companies. 

Even before the attacks, air traffic was flat and revenue per passenger down 10 percent, said aviation industry consultant Michael Boyd. 

He forecast that 230 million fewer passengers will fly in the next five years than would have otherwise because of the attacks, and that demand will not fully recover until 2005 or 2006. 

Airports that have curtailed or are reconsidering expansion plans since Sept. 11 include: 

• Los Angeles International Airport, which scaled back its expansion plans to emphasize security over capacity. A revised plan would increase the airport’s capacity to 78 million passengers per year by 2015, instead of the 89 million previously envisioned. 

• San Francisco International Airport, which has halted plans to renovate a domestic terminal and build a new airport hotel but remains determined to change its status as the nation’s most delay-plagued airport by expanding its runways. Officials assume passenger traffic will return to pre-attack levels by the time the runway project is ready for construction. 

• Logan International Airport in Boston, where two of the airplanes hijacked on Sept. 11 originated, where officials will meet this week to decide whether to proceed with the final phases of a 10-year, $4 billion renovation, including the addition of a new runway. 

Airports and airlines also face the costs of increased security. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn has suggested adding a building east of the airport itself to screen passengers and luggage. Passengers would use public transportation to proceed to gates. 

In Phoenix, officials had been considering fingerprint or eye scan systems to screen airport and airline employees who have access to secure areas. They say they now are looking at it more seriously. Halting expansion plans may mean having to look for new, harder-to-find financing later. And some airports, seeing a need for expansion even with the drop in traffic, are pushing ahead. 

“We’re still extremely optimistic about the future,” said Ken Capps, spokesman for Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth airport, which broke ground Sunday on a $2.6 billion expansion that includes a new international terminal and an automated people-mover system. 

“We think it’s a little bit like the stock market. It’s up and down and a little bit uncertain right now, but in the long term, we’re bullish,” he said. 

Two weeks after the terrorist attacks, officials in Michigan’s Wayne County voted to issue $900 million in bonds to add 25 gates to Northwest Airlines’ new terminal and renovate two existing terminals at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 

At Atlanta’s airport, the nation’s busiest, officials are still planning to build a $1.3 billion fifth runway despite renewed criticism over the cost and concerns about declining air traffic. 

And in St. Louis, the first phase of a $1.4 billion expansion plan, including construction of a 9,000-foot runway, will continue even though the airport has lost about $112,000 a day in passenger fees, parking receipts and concession income since Sept. 11. 

“All the money is in place and all the reasons that existed for the expansion still exist, and it’s important for us to continue forward,” said Michael Donatt, a spokesman for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. 

Opponents of the Lambert expansion are urging a second look. 

“The reductions we are seeing in the number of passengers is not a short-term event,” Airport Commissioner John Krekeler said. “It’s not something that’s just a blip on the screen. I think it’s going to have a long-term effect.”